| 


MU 


I 


Bin 
ill 


I 


FENCE' OF-T 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE: 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


/  / 


S" ' 


THE  BLOW  FKOM  BEHIND 


OR 


SOME  FEATURES  OP  THE  ANTI-IMPERIALIST  MOVEMENT 
ATTENDING  THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN 


TOGETHER  WITH 


A  CONSIDERATION  OF  OUR  PHILIPPINE  POLICY 


FROM  ITS  INCEPTION  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 


AND    THE   INTERNATIONAL  AND  DOMESTIC   LAW  AFFECTING 
THE  SAME 


BY 


FRED   C.  CHAMBERLIN,  LL.B. 


BOSTON 

LEE  AND  SHEPARD 
1903 


t."'1 

.6 '3 


Published,  March,  1903 


COPYRIGHT,  1003,  BY  LEE  AND  SHEPARD 


All  rights  reserved 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 


Dedication 
TO 

MAJ.   GEN.   O.   O.   HOWARD 

U.  S.  A.,  Retired 

THE  MAN  WHOSE   SINGLE  AIM 

IS  TO   MAKE   OTHERS   HAPPV   AND   PROSPEROUS, 
AND  WHO,   BY   HIS  EXAMPLE,    FIRST 

TAUGHT  ME  FRIENDSHIP, 
THIS    VOLUME    IS    DEDICATED 


WOLLASTON, 

Christmas  Eve^  TQOS 


224084 


PREFACE 

This  volume  is  made  up  of  the  complete  manu 
script  which  was  prepared  as  the  foundation  of  the 
address  delivered  by  the  author  upon  Memorial 
Day,  1902,  before  Stannard  Post  No.  2,  G.  A.  R.,  at 
Burlington,  Vt.,  and  of  such  additions  as  have  been 
necessary  in  order  that  the  work  might  comprehend 
the  entire  period  of  the  Philippine  Insurrection,  so 
called.  The  distribution  of  a  limited  number  of 
galley  slips  of  the  address  about  as  delivered,  of 
course  covering  much  less  ground  than  is  herein 
considered,  received  such  enthusiastic  comments 
and  so  much  attention  from  leading  newspapers, 
although  the  slips  were  sent  out  too  late  to  be  con 
sidered  news,  as  to  seem  to  warrant  the  publication 
of  this  volume.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  congres 
sional  campaign  of  last  fall  we  would  have  published 
long  before  this.  The  author's  desire,  however,  to 
make  this  an  American  book,  and  not  a  party  one, 
has  rendered  delay  inevitable  until  he  deemed  that 

vii 


PREFACE 

the  Philippine  question  had  really  ceased  to  be  an 
important  subject  of  dissension  between  the  two 
prominent  parties  and  had  become  a  question  with 
which  we  were  willing  to  deal  as  a  nation.  To  the 
writer's  mind  that  time  has  now  arrived. 

At  first,  those  who  read  these  pages  will  probably 
be  intensely  surprised  to  learn  that  the  literature  of 
the  Anti-Imperialists  was  so  largely  made  up  of 
ridiculous  exaggerations,  barefaced  misquotations, 
misrepresentations  and  falsehoods,  and  to  learn  that 
an  individual  who  has  gained  a  national  reputation 
as  a  statistician  would  stoop  to  such  methods  to 
prove  his  points ;  and  yet,  to  the  mind  of  the  author 
of  this  book,  such  indefensible  methods  are  the  most 
likely  weapons  in  the  world  to  be  employed  by 
American  men  who  can  see  nothing  wrong  in  en 
couraging  a  public  enemy  to  shoot  down  American 
soldiers.  In  passing,  it  may  also  be  properly  ob 
served  that  if  a  person's  statistics  are  taken  at  their 
face  value  it  seems  easy  for  anyone  to  obtain  a 
national  reputation  as  a  statistician.  Perhaps  this 
indicates  the  explanation  of  the  reputation  of  at  least 
one  man. 

The  conviction,  based  upon  purely  psychological 
grounds  and  after  much  thought,  was  forced  upon 
viii 


PREFACE 

me  that  such  men  would  do  anything  to  gain  their 
point — that  they  were  outside  the  pale  that  covers 
sound,  careful,  considerate,  responsible  minds,  and 
that,  therefore,  we  must,  in  whatever  they  do,  look 
for  everything  and  anything  that  is  unjustifiable,  un 
fair,  and  irresponsible — and  the  disclosures  herein 
set  out  of  their  work  support  strongly  this  theory— 
and  it  was  this  belief  that  led  to  the  minute  exami 
nation  contained  in  this  book  of  the  literature  and 
statistics  presented  to  the  country  by  the  Anti- 
Imperialists. 

The  discovery  of  the  fact  that  there  are  practically 
no  men  among  the  Anti-Imperialists  who  ever 
carried  a  musket  in  war,  although  the  most  of  them 
were,  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  of  enlistment 
age,  was  also  the  result  of  reasoning  and  reflection, 
and  not  of  any  mere  chance. 

The  author  has  hope  that  there  will  be  many 
people  in  the  country  who  will  be  glad  that  this  book 
has  been  written.  He  will  be  especially  pleased  if 
it  is  welcomed  by  those  who  are  or  have  been 
American  soldiers  and  by  those  who  are  especially 
interested  in  them,  for  he  will  then  feel  as  if  he  had 
done  something  for  them.  That  is  what,  above 
all  else,  he  desires  to  accomplish  ;  and  he  seeks  no 

ix 


PREFACE 

other  reward  nor,  indeed,  is  any  other  conceivable, 
for  the  many  hours  which  the  preparation  of  this 
volume  has  consumed  than  the  satisfaction  which  the 
fulfillment  of  this  desire  would  bring  to  him. 

F.  C.  C. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 
DEWEY  AND  OUR  INTERNATIONAL  OBLIGATIONS 

How  carefully  we  prepared  for  Manila  Bay. 
Dewey's  problems  after  Manila  Bay.  Why 
Dewey  could  not  accept  the  surrender  of 
Manila.  The  International  Law  on  this  point. 
Military  occupation  under  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States I 

CHAPTER  II 
HOSTILE  FLEETS  AT  MANILA 

Hostile  attitude  of  foreign  nations.  International 
law  under  which  they  acted.  Right  of  the 
foreign  nations  to  intervene.  Instances  in 
which  we  intervened 13 

CHAPTER   III 
DEWEY  AND  AGUINALDO 

Danger  from  Aguinaldo,  and  character  of  his 
forces.  Necessary  for  us  to  restrain  Agui 
naldo.  Help  arrives  for  Dewey.  Governor  of 
Manila  subjects  women  and  children  to  perils 
of  bombardment  rather  than  leave  them  to 
Aguinaldo.  Manila  surrenders.  Aguinaldo's 
forces  had  to  be  kept  out  of  Manila  .  .  23 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IV 

MR.  MCKINLEY'S  PROBLEMS 

International  obligations  assumed  by  the  United 
States.  President  McKinley's  course  inflex 
ibly  fixed  by  law.  Mr.  McKinley's  efforts  to 
find  out  the  facts.  Qualifications  of  the  mem 
bers  of  Mr.  McKinley's  first  commission.  Sub 
stance  of  their  report  to  Mr.  McKinley.  Mr. 
McKinley  decides  on  their  report  as  a  basis  .  37 

CHAPTER  V 

THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND  STRIKES 
The  blow  from  behind  falls  on  our  soldiers      .        .      52 

CHAPTER  VI 

ATKINSON'S  RIDICULOUS  FINANCE 

Edward    Atkinson's     financial    prophecies    proven 

ridiculous  and  full  of  misstatements        .        .      55 

CHAPTER   VII 

ATKINSON'S  GHASTLY  DEATH  STATISTICS 
Diseases  in  our  army  in  the  Philippines  .        .      70 

CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  VENEREAL  DISEASE  LIBEL 

Venereal  Diseases 83 


CONTENTS  xiii 

CHAPTER  IX 
ANTI-IMPERIALISM  COST  LIVES 

How  Anti-Imperialism  cost  the  lives  of  American 
soldiers.  Documents  captured  by  Funston 
showing  Anti-Imperialist  aid  to  Aguinaldo. 
Documents  showing  Filipino  policy  as  de 
clared  by  themselves.  They  co-operate  with 
Anti-Imperialists  in  the  United  States  .  .  92 

CHAPTER  X 

No  SOLDIERS  AMONG  ANTI-IMPERIALISTS       .        .        .    112 

CHAPTER  XI 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  ON  ANTI-IMPERIALISM     .       .       .116 

CHAPTER  XII 
FORWARD 

Mr.  McKinley's  second  committee.  The  Taft  com 
mission  and  qualifications  of  its  members, 
Taft  commission's  report  to  Mr.  McKinley. 
Both  of  Mr.  McKinley's  commissions  agree 
unanimously  on  facts.  Colonel  Guy  Howard's 
death.  His  heroic  last  words  ....  129 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

CHAPTER   I 

DEWEY  AND   OUR   INTERNATIONAL 
OBLIGATIONS 

HOW  CAREFULLY  WE  PREPARED  FOR  MANILA  BAY 

ON  the  27th  of  January,  1898,  about  three  weeks 
before  the  destruction  of  the  Maine,  a  cable  mes 
sage  was  sent  by  the  Navy  Department  to  Com 
modore  Dewey,  who  commanded  our  Asiatic 
Squadron,  directing  him  to  retain  all  of  his  men 
whose  enlistments  had  expired.  On  February 
25th,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  then  Assistant  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  sent  another  cable  to  Dewey  directing 
him  to  assemble  his  fleet  at  Hong  Kong  at  once, 
to  retain  the  Olympia,  which  had  been  previously 
ordered  back  to  San  Francisco,  and  to  be  thoroughly 
prepared  for  offensive  operations  in  the  Philippine 
Islands  in  case  of  war  with  Spain. 

On  the  following  day,  Dewey  was  ordered  to 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

fill  every  bunker  of  his  fleet  with  the  best  coal  he 
could  obtain.  On  the  3rd  of  March  the  Mohican 
was  sent  to  Honolulu  from  San  Francisco  with  a 
cargo  of  shot,  shell  and  powder,  and  the  Baltimore 
was  ordered  from  China  to  meet  her  at  Honolulu, 
transfer  that  cargo  to  her  own  lockers  and  then 
steam  for  Hong  Kong  as  fast  as  she  could. 

On  the  i  Qth  of  April,  a  great  day  in  American 
history,  since  1775,  and  a  day  that  will  be  as  great 
in  the  annals  of  Cuba,  Porto  Rico  and  the  Philip 
pines,  for  it  will  mark  the  beginning  of  the  struggle 
that  gave  them  their  freedom,  as  it  does  that  of  the 
struggle  that  gave  us  ours,  Congress  passed  the 
resolution  declaring  war  with  Spain;  and  that 
night  five  hundred  American  sailors  climbed  over 
the  sides  of  our  fleet  in  the  far-away  harbor  of 
Hong  Kong,  and  proceeded  to  daub  a  new  coat  of 
dark,  dirty,  drab  paint  over  the  snow-white  that 
had  covered  our  ships  for  thirty  years. 

Two  days  later,  on  the  2ist  of  April,  the  Balti 
more,  with  her  great  load  of  ammunition,  came 
rolling  into  Hong  Kong,  clear  from  Honolulu,  her 
race  against  time  well  won.  Her  precious  cargo 
was  divided  up  with  the  greatest  haste  among  all 
of  our  ships;  and  the  Baltimore  was  put  into  dry- 

2 


OUR  INTERNATIONAL  OBLIGATIONS 

dock,  cleaned,  painted  and  floated  out,  all  in  forty- 
eight  hours'  time.  On  that  very  day,  England 
notified  the  United  States  that,  under  the  interna 
tional  laws  of  neutrality,  Dewey  must  leave  Hong 
Kong.  He  was  ready  and,  although  he  had  the 
right  to  take  twenty-four  hours,  he  took  one,  and 
left  at  two  o'clock  that  very  afternoon,  moving 
about  thirty  miles  from  British  jurisdiction  into 
purely  Chinese  waters.  Here,  two  days  later,  on 
April  26th,  there  was  flashed  around  the  world  to 
him,  this  message: 

"  DEWEY,  Asiatic  Squadron : 

"  War  has  commenced  between  the  United  States 
and  Spain.  Proceed  at  once  to  Philippine  Islands. 
Commence  operations  at  once,  particularly 
against  the  Spanish  fleet.  You  must  capture  ves 
sels  or  destroy.  Use  utmost  endeavors. 

"  LONG." 

And  the  next  day  Dewey  started  for  Manila.  Not 
a  moment  had  been  lost;  and,  when  the  time  came 
for  the  struggle,  there  we  were,  waiting,  in  perfect 
condition,  without  a  thing  left  undone.  It  is  a 
record  of  which  to  be  proud. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  state,  at  any  length,  what 
happened  in  Manila  harbor  on  May  I,  1898.  In 

3 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

four  or  five  hours'  time,  every  ship  of  the  Spanish 
squadron  was  sunk  to  the  bottom  of  the  bay  and 
hundreds  of  their  men  killed,  while  we  never  lost 
a  single  sailor  and  had  only  eight  men  wounded, 
and  they  all  slightly  and  by  one  shell;  and 
three  hundred  years  of  Spanish  rule  over  10,000,- 
ooo  people  had  gone  up  in  the  smoke  of  American 
powder  and  we  had  lopped  off,  by  the  first  blow  of 
the  war,  a  clean  third,  both  in  population  and  in 
area,  of  the  great  Spanish  Empire.* 

DEWEY'S  PROBLEMS  AFTER  MANILA  BAY 

What  was  Dewey's  situation  after  the  battle? 
No  power  in  the  Philippines  could  resist  him 
within  the  range  of  his  guns.  By  a  word  from 
him  he  might  perhaps  secure  the  surrender  of  the 

*The  entire  Spanish  Empire,  before  Manila  Bay,  was 
composed  as  follows  :  Spain,  191,100  square  miles  and  17,- 
550,246  people  ;  the  Philippines,  114,326  square  miles  and 
10, 000,000  people  ;  Caroline  Islands,  2944  square  miles  and 
234,046  people  ;  Cuba  with  43,220  miles  and  1,521, 684  pop 
ulation  ;  Balearic  Islands,  1860  miles  and  262,893  people  ; 
the  Canary  Islands  with  2808  miles  and  287,728  people, 
and  Porto  Rico  with  3530  miles  and  807,708  population — 
a  grand  total  of  359,788  square  miles  and  30,664,305  people 
— one-third  of  which  is  119,929  square  miles  and  10,221,435 
people,  and  the  Philippines  have  114,326  square  miles  and 
10,000,000  of  people. 


OUR  INTERNATIONAL  OBLIGATIONS 

city  of  Manila  with  its  some  250,000  people,  with  all 
its  great  wealth  and  even  of  its  army  of  14,000 
Spanish  veterans  who  garrisoned  it.  A  single 
message  from  Dewey  to  the  Spanish  Governor- 
General  to  the  effect  that  the  former  would  bom 
bard  the  town  unless  it  and  its  garrison  capitulated 
at  once,  might  have  brought  the  two  to  Dewey's 
feet. 

Dewey  was  all  alone.  ;He  had  no  communica 
tion  with  his  government.  The  Spaniards  held 
both  ends  of  the  only  cable  from  the  islands,  and 
all  Dewey  could  do  was  to  cut  it  and  tie  the  severed 
ends  to  two  barrels  floating  in  the  harbor  where  he 
could  keep  watch  of  them. 

So  long  as  he  remained  there  on  guard,  he  knew 
he  held  that  Spanish  army  where  it  could  not  strike 
a  blow  at  us  anywhere  else.  It  could  only  leave 
on  Spanish  ships  while  he  was  there,  and  the 
Spanish  ships  were  all  under  water.  Is  there  any 
doubt  but  that  Dewey  ought  to  have  remained 
just  where  he  was,  retaining  every  bit  he  had  won, 
and  improving  every  new  opportunity  to  inflict 
further  injury  on  Spain?  This  was  a  war  in  which 
Dewey  was  engaged.  He  knew  the  advantage  he 
had  gained.  He  knew  that  he  would  have  been 

5 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

court-martialed  if  he  had  relinquished  it.  What 
would  have  been  done  to  Grant  if,  after  mastering 
the  fortifications  of  Richmond,  he  had  turned 
around  and  run  away?  Dewey's  problem  was  the 
same.  This  was  a  war  and  wars  are  won  by  sur 
renders  like  that  of  Manila  and  its  garrison,  an 
army  of  14,000  troops,  that  guard  an  empire  and 
by  the  fall  of  Santiago  with  25,000  mofe. 

Dewey  knew  this.  He  knew  what  an  awful 
blow  it  would  be  for  Spain  to  have  to  surrender  to 
him  Manila  and  its  garrison.  But  he  could  not 
try  to  inflict  that  blow;  he  could  not  catch  the 
hare;  he  could  only  watch  the  hole.  If  Manila 
and  its  14,000  troops  had  been  offered  to  him  on  a 
golden  salver  he  would  have  had  to  refuse  them. 
He  could  not  accept  the  surrender  of  anything. 

WHY     DEVVEY    COULD     NOT     ACCEPT    THE    SUR 
RENDER     OF     MANILA 

Why? — because,  by  the  terms  of  international 
law,  the  United  States  was  obliged,  if  it  accepted 
the  surrender  of  Manila  and  its  great  garrison,  to 
take  care  of  them  both, — to  govern  that  city  of 
250,000  people,  to  establish  and  maintain  order  in 
it,  to  protect  the  lives  and  property  of  all  the 

6 


OUR  INTERNATIONAL  OBLIGATIONS 

people  therein,  both  foreigners  and  peaceful 
natives,  to  establish  courts  of  justice,  and  to  treat 
and  guard  these  14,000  Spanish  soldiers  as  priso 
ners  of  war, — and  Dewey  could  not  spare  a  man 
for  that  purpose  from  his  hot  decks.  Thousands 
of  extra  men  were  needed  to  do  this  work  that 
would  have  fallen  upon  us  the  moment  Manila  and 
its  garrison  capitulated.  There  was  no  way  we 
could  escape  that  liability  to  every  other  nation  in 
the  world  who  had  citizens  there. 

THE    INTERNATIONAL    LAW    ON    THIS    POINT 

Here  are  the  leading  authorities  upon  that  point. 

Probably  the  greatest  work  on  international  law 
that  has  been  written  in  the  last  half  century  is 
from  the  pen  of  Calvo,  the  eminent  Frenchman. 

In  Vol.  II,  Ch.  Calvo,  Le  Droit  International 
(2d  edition),  at  pp.  301-2,  §  999,  he  quotes  with  ap 
proval,  our  own  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  as  fol 
lows: 

"  At  the  moment  of  the  transfer  of  the  territory, 
the  relations  of  its  inhabitants  with  the  former 
sovereign  dissolve  themselves.  The  same  act  that 
transfers  the  ownership  of  the  soil  transfers  the 
loyalty  of  the  people  who  continue  to  remain 
there." 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

That  is,  as  soon  as  the  territory  of  Manila  were 
actually  transferred  to  the  keeping  of  the  United 
States,  the  United  States  would  become  bound 
to  protect  the  lives  and  property  of  all  persons  in 
Manila  "by  all  the  efforts  in  ...  (their) 
power,"  as  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  then  Secretary 
of  State,  puts  it  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  De  Onis,  March 
12,  1818: 

"There  is  no  principle  of  the  law  of  nations 
more  firmly  established  than  that  which  entitles 
the  property  of  strangers  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
a  country  in  friendship  with  their  own,  to  the  pro 
tection  of  its  sovereign  by  all  the  efforts  in  his 
power."  Whart.  Int.  Law  Dig.,  Vol.  2,  §  201. 

Mr.  Hannis  Taylor,  probably  the  foremost 
American  authority  now  writing  on  international 
law,  in  his  Public  International  Law,  §  570,  says, 
with  regard  to  the  liabilities  we  would  have  as 
sumed  if  Dewey  had  come  into  actual  military  oc 
cupation  of  Manila: 

"  The  whole  subject  (of  military  authority  over 
hostile  territory)  has  been  regulated  by  Section 
III  of  The  Hague  Second  Convention,  '  On.  Mili 
tary  Authority  over  Hostile  Territory' 

"  xx  Art.  XLH.  Territory  is  considered  occu 
pied  when  it  is  actually  placed  under  the  authority 
of  the  hostile  army. 

8 


OUR  INTERNATIONAL  OBLIGATIONS 

"  (Art.  XLIII.)  The  authority  of  the  legitimate 
power  having  actually  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  occupant,  the  latter  shall  take  all  steps  in  his 
power  to  reestablish  and  insure,  as  far  as  possible, 
public  order  and  safety." 

This  must  now  be  taken  as  the  law.  It  is  the 
latest  agreement  among  the  civilized  nations.  The 
last  article  above  is  something  for  us  to  bear  in 
mind:  "The  occupant  (that  is,  the  United 
States)  shall  take  all  steps  in  his  (their)  power  to 
reestablish  and  insure,  so  far  as  possible,  public 
order  and  safety."  It  is  part  of  our  text  in  the 
Philippines. 

Taylor,  in  §  574,  says : 

"  As  Chief  Justice  Marshall  said  in  a  notable 
case:  'Although  acquisitions  made  during  war 
are  not  considered  as  permanent  until  confirmed  by 
treaty,  yet  to  every  commercial  and  belligerent  pur 
pose,  they  are  considered  as  a  part  of  the  domain 
of  the  conqueror,  so  long  as  he  retains  the  possession 
and  government  of  them.' J: 

And  two  sections  further  along,  Mr.  Taylor 
says : 

"  The  duty  of  an  occupant  to  govern  the  terri 
tory  of  which  he  is  in  military  possession  is  cor 
relative  to  his  right  to  possess  himself  of  it  as 
conqueror,  and,  as  such,  to  end  all  forms  of  pre- 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

existing  authority.  The  right  of  a  belligerent  to 
so  occupy  and  govern  is  one  of  the  incidents  of 
war  flowing  directly  from  the  laws  of  war  as  recog 
nized  by  usage  and  as  embodied  in  the  laws  of  na 
tions." 

Another  statement  by  high  authority  is  the  fol 
lowing  from  Westlake's  Int.  Law.,  Chapter  XI, 
ist  paragraph: 

"  The  peaceable  population  of  an  invaded  dis 
trict  are  entitled  to  protection  for  their  life, 
honor,  family  rights,  and  religion." 


MILITARY    OCCUPATION    UNDER    THE    CONSTITUTION 
OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

Mr.  Taylor,  in  §  579,  gives  the  following  exact 
statement.  It  shows  the  law  as  it  has  been  since 
interpreted  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
and  it  also  shows  what  the  duties  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States  are  with  relation  to  the  peo 
ples  of  such  territory.  He  has  no  choice  in  the 
matter.  Remember  that  when  we  consider  what 
he  did. 

"  Hostile  territory  subdued  by  the  armies  of 
the  United  States  does  not  pass  under  the  domin 
ion  either  of  its  constitution  or  its  laws,  neither 
do  its  inhabitants  become  citizens  or  subjects  of 

10 


OUR  INTERNATIONAL  OBLIGATIONS 

the  same,  for  the  reason  that  neither  the  Presi 
dent  as  Commander-in-chief  nor  the  military  offi 
cers  under  his  control  can  enlarge  the  boundaries 
of  the  Union  without  enabling  legislation  from 
Congress  itself.  .  .  Until  the  status  of  territory 
so  occupied  and  that  of  its  inhabitants  has  been 
altered  by  adequate  legislation,  such  territory  does 
not  cease  to  be  foreign,  nor  do  its  inhabitants 
cease  to  be  aliens,  in  the  sense  in  which  those 
words  are  used  in  the  laws  of  the  United  States. 
( Fleming  and  Page,  9  How.  603 ;  Cross  and  Har 
rison,  1 6  How.  164.)  While  such  conquered  ter 
ritory  is  under  the  sovereignty  of  the  United 
States  it  is  no  part  of  the  Union,  and  its  inhabi 
tants  have  none  of  the  rights,  immunities  or  privi 
leges  guaranteed  by  law  to  citizens  thereof.  .  . 
While  war  continues  it  is  the  military  duty  of  the 
President  as  Commander-in-Chief  to  provide  for 
the  security  of  persons  and  property,  and  for  the 
administration  of  justice.  (The  Grape  Shop,  9 
Wall.  129.)  Such  government  may  be  carried  on 
under  an  entirely  new  code  made  by  the  author 
ity  of  the  Commander-in-chief."  (Scott  v.  Bill- 
gerry,  40  Miss.  119.) 

Is  there  any  doubt  of  what  we  would  have  done 
had  we  been  in  Dewey's  place?  I  think  not.  I 
believe  we  would  have  done  exactly  as  he  did,  and 
that  was  to  ask  for  help ;  and  if  one  of  us  had  been 
President  of  the  United  States  we  would  have 
done  just  as  Mr.  McKinley  did, — we  would  have 
sent  it.  It  is  doubtful  if  there  is  a  man  of  common 

ii 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

sense  in  the  country  who  would  have  done  differ 
ently,  or  been  justified,  at  the  time,  in  doing  dif 
ferently,  had  he  been  in  the  shoes  of  either  Dewey 
or  Mr.  McKinley.  The  proposition  is  too  plain, 
too  evident  for  contradiction. 

So  far,  then,  we  must  all  agree  as  to  our  policy 
in  the  Philippines.  There  can  be  no  division  up  to 
this  point. 


CHAPTER    II 

HOSTILE  FLEETS  AT  MANILA 

HOSTILE     ATTITUDE    OF     FOREIGN     NATIONS — INTER 
NATIONAL   LAW   UNDER   WHICH   THEY  ACTED 

THE  moment  Manila  Bay  cabled  its  message 
around  the  world,  all  the  great  nations  rushed 
their  men-of-war  to  that  port  under  forced  draft. 
Each  of  those  nations  had  many  of  its  own  citi 
zens  there  whose  lives  and  property  it  was  bound 
to  protect. 

The  international  law,  under  which  they  were 
acting  in  sending  their  men-of-war  to  Manila,  and 
the  obligation  of  Spain  are  defined  by  the  following : 

Vattel,  the  great  French  authority,  says  (Vat- 
tel,  Chitty's  edition,  Book  II,  §  104)  : 

"  As  soon  as  he  (a  foreign  sovereign,  that  is, 
Spain  in  this  case),  admits  them  (foreigners),  he 
engages  to  protect  them  as  his  own  subjects,  and 
to  afford  them  perfect  security,  so  far  as  depends 
on  him." 

13 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  when  Secretary  of 
State,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  De  Onis  (supra),  March 
12,  1818,  states  the  principle  in  this  way: 

"  There  is  no  principle  of  the  law  of  nations 
more  firmly  established  than  that  which  entitles 
the  property  of  strangers  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  a  country  in  friendship  with  their  own,  to  the 
protection  of  its  sovereign  by  all  the  efforts  in  his 
power."  Whart.  Int.  Law  Dig.,  Vol.  II,  §201. 

There  is  Spain's  liability.  She  was  liable  for 
any  failure  to  protect  the  60,000  or  70,000  for 
eigners  in  Manila  "  by  all  the  efforts  in  (her) 
power." 

Now,  as  a  rule,  the  foreigners  who  continually 
reside  in  a  foreign  country  that  is  at  war  are  en 
titled  only  to  such  protection  as  that  to  which  the 
native  citizens  of  that  country  are  entitled  from 
their  government.  But  there  is  a  peculiar  liabil 
ity  to  which  eastern  governments  are  subject 
toward  Europeans,  that  grows  out  of  the  fact  that 
Europeans  in  the  East  almost  never  mix  with  the 
natives.  They  live  by  themselves,  usually  in  a 
part  of  the  town  of  their  own.  At  Tientsin,  for 
instance,  which  was  so  recently  besieged  by  the 
Boxers,  there  are  two  cities,  the  Chinese  and  the 

14 


HOSTILE  FLEETS  AT  MANILA 

European  settlements.  International  law  regards 
these  Europeans  as  Europeans  still,  and  the  Span 
ish  Government  was  liable  to  the  home  govern 
ments  of  Europeans  in  Manila  for  any  damage  or 
harm  done  to  them  by  any  failure  upon  her  part  to 
protect  them  "  by  all  the  efforts  in  (her)  power." 
The  best  statement  I  have  found  of  this  point  is 
in  Lawrence's  Wheaton  (Elems.  of  Int.  Law, 
§333,  P-  4i8),  as  follows: 

"The  national  character  of  merchants  residing 
in  Europe  and  America  is  derived  from  that  of 
the  country  in  which  they  reside.  In  the  eastern 
parts  of  the  world,  European  persons,  trading 
under  the  shelter  and  protection  of  the  factories 
founded  there,  take  their  national  character  from 
that  association  under  which  they  live  and  carry 
on  their  trade:  this  distinction  arises  from  the  na 
ture  and  habits  of  the  countries. 

"  In  the  western  part  of  the  world,  alien  mer 
chants  mix  in  the  society  of  the  natives ;  access  and 
intermixture  are  permitted,  and  they  become  in 
corporated  to  nearly  the  full  extent. 

"  But  in  the  East,  'from  almost  the  oldest  times,  an 
immiscible  character  has  been  kept  up;  foreign 
ers  are  not  admitted  into  the  general  body  and 
mass  of  the  nation;  they  continue  strangers  and 
sojourners,  as  all  their  fathers  were.  Thus,  with 
respect  to  establishments  in  Turkey,  the  British 
courts  of  prize,  during  war  with  Holland,  de 
termined  that  a  merchant,  carrying  on  trade  in 

'5 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

Smyrna,  under  the  protection  of  the  Dutch  con 
sul,  was  to  be  considered  a  Dutchman,  and  con 
demned  his  property  as  belonging  to  an  enemy. 
And  thus  in  China,  and  generally  throughout  the 
East,  persons  admitted  into  a  factory  are  not 
known  in  their  own  peculiar  national  character; 
and,  not  being  permitted  to  assume  the  character 
of  the  country,  are  considered  only  in  the  char 
acter  of  that  association  or  factory." 


RIGHT  OF  THE  FOREIGN  NATIONS  TO  INTERVENE 

In  case  Spain  did  not,  either  because  she  could 
not  or  would  not,  protect  a  foreign  citizen  and  his 
property  in  Manila,  the  nation  to  which  that  for 
eigner  belonged  could  step  in,  come  in, — intervene 
is  the  legal  term, — and  protect  him  herself  with  her 
cannon,  her  ships,  her  armies,  or  any  other  way  she 
might  choose.  The  right  of  a  nation  to  protect  its 
own  citizens  anywhere  is  akin  to  the  highest  law, 
— the  law  that,  when  invoked,  allows  a  government 
to  override  and  overturn  every  other  law  made  by 
man  or  by  itself  even,  the  law  of  self-preservation. 

Here  are  the  leading  authors  for  these  state 
ments: 

Taylor,  Int.  Pub.  Law,  §174,  says: 

"  A  part  of  the  general  right  of  self-preserva 
tion  possessed  by  every  state  is  the  special  right 

16 


HOSTILE  FLEETS  AT  MANILA 

to  protect  its  subjects  abroad,  which  is  correlative 
to  its  liability  to  respond  for  injuries  inflicted  upon 
aliens  within  its  own  limits." 

At  §  198,  he  continues: 

"  Nations  must  hold  intercourse  with  each  other, 
and  the  right  of  a  state  to  protect  its  subjects 
abroad  imposes  the  reciprocal  duty  upon  it  to 
answer  for  injuries  unlawfully  inflicted  upon  for 
eigners  within  its  territory  and  jurisdiction." 

That  is,  "  If  I  may  protect  my  citizens  in  your 
country,  I'll  protect  yours  in  mine." 

Hall's  Int.  Law,  §  87,  states  the  principle  thus : 

"  States  possess  a  right  of  protecting  their  sub 
jects  abroad  which  is  correlative  to  their  responsi 
bility  in  respect  of  injuries  inflicted  upon  foreign 
ers  within  their  dominions." 

How  far  a  nation  may  go  in  protecting  its  cit 
izens  when  they  are  endangered  whik  among  a 
foreign  nation,  may  be  judged  by  the  following 
citations: 

Prof.  Hoffcutt,  of  Indiana  University,  in  a 
treatise  styled  "  International  Law  for  Mob  In 
juries,"  says: 

"  It  is  the  undeniable  right  of  every  sovereign 
state,  and  to  a  reasonable  extent  the  duty,  as 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

well,  to  protect  the  persons  and  the  property  of  its 
citizens  visiting  or  domiciled  in  a  foreign  country, 
and  when  they  are  injured  in  a  manner  not  war 
ranted  by  the  principles  of  international  law,  to  in 
tervene  in  their  behalf.  If  the  foreign  country  per 
mits  aliens  thus  to  visit  or  reside  in  its  territory, 
it  impliedly  guarantees  them  the  same  measure  of 
safety  and  protection  as  is  provided  for  its  own 
citizens.  Should  it  fail  in  this  international  duty, 
in  any  respect,  the  government  of  the  injured 
alien  has  a  just  cause  for  intervention  and  com 
plaint.  The  principle  was  stated  concretely  by 
Chief  Justice  Marshall  to  be  that  '  The  American 
citizen  who  goes  into  a  foreign  country,  although 
he  owes  local  and  temporary  allegiance  to  the 
country,  is  yet  .  .  .  entitled  to  the  protection  of 
his  own  government.'  (Murray  vs.  Schooner 
Charming  Betsy,  2  Cranch,  120.)  This  language 
was  adopted  as  correct  by  Mr.  Webster,  then  Secre 
tary  of  State,  (vol.  6,  Webster's  Works,  p.  523) 
.  .  .  and  has  been  since  generally  approved  as  em 
bodying  an  accepted  principle  of  international  law 
and  a  rule  for  the  guidance  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States." 


Mr.  Hall  (Int.  Law,  §  12)  states: 

"  When  a  state  grossly  and  patently  violates  in 
ternational  law,  in  a  matter  of  serious  importance, 
it  is  competent  to  any  state,  or  to  the  body  of 
states,  to  hinder  the  wrongdoing  from  being  ac 
complished,  or  to  punish  the  wrongdoer, 
International  law  being  unprovided  with  the  sup 
port  of  an  organized  authority,  the  work  of  police 

18 


HOSTILE  FLEETS  AT  MANILA 

must  be  done  by  such  members  of  the  community 
of  nations  as  are  able  to  perform  it." 

INSTANCES   IN    WHICH    WE   INTERVENED 

The  United  States  offer  several  precedents.  By 
seeing  what  we  ourselves  do  when  our  citizens  are 
not  protected  in  a  foreign  country,  we  in  some 
measure  may  be  able  to  form  an  idea  of  what  is 
to  be  anticipated  of  other  nations,  in  a  like  situa 
tion. 

In  1853  occurred  what  is  known  in  international 
law  books  as  "  The  Greytown  Case." 

In  that  case  citizens  of  the  United  States  had 
been  robbed  at  Greytown,  San  Juan.  We  sent  a 
war  ship  there  to  demand  redress,  and  when  that 
was  not  forthcoming,  we  destroyed  the  town, 
partly  by  bombardment  and  partly  by  a  force  of 
marines  landed  for  that  purpose.  (Vide  Whart, 
Int.  Law  Dig.,  §  224.) 

For  instances  known  to  us  all,  I  need  only  to 
call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  we  hold  Hawaii 
to-day  because  we  landed  our  marines  there  from 
the  Boston  on  the  i6th  of  January,  1893,  on  the  plea 
that  it  was  to  protect  American  lives  and  property. 
The  government  of  that  country,  it  was  said,  had 

'9 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

ceased  to  have  sufficient  strength  to  protect  our 
people  living  there  and  so  we  intervened  by  force. 
We  landed  cannon  and  troops  and  were  ready  to 
do  anything  that  was  needed  to  preserve  order. 

And,  last  of  all,  so  recent  that  the  anxiety  of  it 
is  still  vivid  in  our  minds,  is  the  Boxer  trouble  in 
China.  That  is  on  all-fours  with  the  present  ques 
tions  we  have  confronting  us,  from  an  interna 
tional  standpoint,  in  the  Philippines.  China  should 
have  protected  the  foreign  legations  in  Pekin  and 
the  foreigners  throughout  the  empire.  She  could 
have  done  it  if  she  had  exerted  herself  "  by  all  the 
efforts  in  (her)  power,"  as  Mr.  Adams  defines  her 
duty — but  she  didn't.  What  was  the  result?  We 
joined  the  other  nations  in  intervening  by  force 
and,  after  a  number  of  battles,  we  rescued  our 
people  and  then  we,  together  with  all  the  nations 
whose  citizens  had  been  outraged  or  injured,  pre 
sented  a  collective  bill  of  $333,000,000,  which 
China  will  be  paying,  together  with  four  per  cent, 
annual  interest  thereon,  for  the  next  forty  years, — 
this  amount  to  reimburse  us  with  the  other  par 
ticipating  nations  for  the  expenses  we  were  put  to 
in  sending  troops  over  there,  and  for  damages  to 
those  individuals  whose  property  had  been  ^de- 

20 


HOSTILE  FLEETS  AT  MANILA 

stroyed,  or  injured,  and  as  indemnities  to  the  fam 
ilies  of  those  whose  lives  had  been  sacrificed. 

In  a  word,  then,  these  foreign  nations  who  were 
sending  their  men-of-war  to  Manila  under  all 
speed  were  going  to  protect  their  countrymen  in 
any  way  and  by  any  method  that  became  necessary 
to  accomplish  that  object.  The  fact  that  armored 
ships  only  were  sent  shows  more  than  all  else  how 
they  expected  to  do  their  work,  if  any  there  were. 

As  soon  as  they  arrived,  they  took  up  stations 
,  where  they  could/  in  sullen,  menacing  silence, 
sleeplessly  watch  every  move  we  made.  Armored 
vessels  and  battleships  they  were,  too,  against 
Dewey's  unarmored  cruisers.  The  Germans  had 
five  of  them.  Before  our  troops  began  to  arrive, 
the  Germans  and  French  were  nagging  Dewey  at 
every  opportunity.  Dewey  proclaimed  the  port 
blockaded  by  him  and,  by  the  laws  of  war,  he  had 
the  right  to  lay  down  reasonable  regulations 
which  all  nations  should  observe  and  which  would 
enable  him  to  effectually  carry  out  that  blockade. 
If  he  could  not  make  it  effectual,  it  would  not  hold, 
according  to  the  same  laws,  for  any  nation  has  a 
perfect  right  to  totally  ignore  an  imperfect  block 
ade. 

21 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

The  Germans  broke  nearly  all  of  Dewey's  regu 
lations  about  as  fast  as  he  made  them.  They 
moved  about  in  the  darkness;  on  several  occasions 
they  tried  to  run  the  blockade  by  putting  out  their 
lights;  they  would  follow  our  transports  as  close 
as  possible  just  to  spy  out  to  see  how  many  men 
we  had  on  board ;  they  would  not  salute  the  flag  of 
the  United  States  as  they  passed  it. 

Dewey  sat  there  in  his  wicker  chair  under  the 
muzzle  of  one  of  his  big  guns,  never  missing  any 
of  it,  and  when  the  right  time  came  he  showed  his 
claws.  Two  of  his  messages  to  the  German  ad 
miral  will  go  down  into  history.  "  Don't  pass  the 
American  flag  again  without  seeing  it "  was 
Dewey's  way  of  calling  the  Kaiser's  representatives' 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  German  salutes  to  the 
American  flag  had  been  notably  absent  for  some 
time,  and  "  Brumby,  tell  Von  Diedrich  that  if  he 
wants  a  fight,  he  can  have  it  right  now,"  when 
some  fresh  annoyance  from  the  Germans  was 
added  to  our  admiral's  heavy  strain. 


CHAPTER   III 

DEWEY  AND  AGUINALDO 

DANGER   FROM    AGUINALDO,    AND   CHARACTER   OF    HIS 
FORCES 

SOON  an  additional  trouble  broke  around 
Dewey's  head.  This  one  must  have  given 
him  more  worry  than  all  the  rest  combined;  for 
there  was  no  way  to  control  it.  He  was  depend 
ent  upon  luck  to  escape  misfortune  from  it.  Noth 
ing  that  he  could  do  would  direct  it  or  govern  it 
in  an  appreciable  degree;  and  yet  it  could  snatch 
away  in  an  instant  everything  he  had  gained,  and 
give  the  hostile  powers  the  very  opening  for  which 
they  were,  for  all  the  world  like  so  many  cats  at  a 
rat-hole,  so  eagerly  watching.  All  they  wanted 
was  an  excuse  to  jump  in  and  seize  the  rat  for 
themselves.  The  insurgents,  Aguinaldo  and  his 
army,  were  closing  in  on  Manila.  They  gradually 
drove  in  the  Spaniards  and  were  likely  to  take 
the  city.  They  were  treacherous,  bloodthirsty  and 

23 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

ignorant  of  the  laws  of  war.  Dewey  was  like  a 
man  in  a  powder  magazine  with  30,000  savages 
surrounding  him,  juggling  lighted  matches  in 
their  hands.  Any  instant  they  might  commit 
some  outrage  that  would  have  given  the  foreign 
war-vessels  in  the  harbor  a  decent  excuse  to  in 
tervene.  That  was  what  they  were  there  for;  to 
use  force  if  they  could  find  any  justification  for  it. 
Their  hostile  attitude  shows  that  plainly  enough. 
They  had  a  perfect  right  to  turn  their  guns  on  to 
the  city  any  moment  their  consuls  or  their  other 
citizens  were  endangered. 

Just  as  we  had  done  at  Greytown  in  1853,  so 
France  or  Germany  or  China  or  Japan  could  have 
done  to  Manila, — bombarded  it  the  moment  it  be 
came  evident  that  the  insurgents  would  capture 
the  city,  if  such  a  time  were  to  come,  as  it  was  evi 
dently  recognized  by  all  the  nations  whose  ships 
were  there  that  massacre  and  sack  would  follow  a 
capture  of  Manila  by  Aguinaldo;  that  was  what 
those  ships  of  war  of  all  nations  were  there  for, — 
exactly  that  for  which  they  were  there.  Where 
should  we  have  been  if  the  other  nations  had  in 
terfered?  Until  they  intervened  we  would  have 
such  a  grip  on  Manila  as  made  it  certain  that  if 

24 


DEWEY  AND  AGUINALDO 

Dewey  could  obtain  enough  help  from  home 
we  would  soon  have  that  city  and  its  gar 
risoning  army  and  the  entire  Philippines  surrender 
to  us.  The  moment  another  nation  interfered  our 
grip  would  be  gone.  Somebody  else  would  snatch 
it  from  us  and  very  likely  that  would  be  done  by  a 
nation  hand-in-glove  with  Spain,  to  whom  the  isl 
ands  might  be  turned  over  by  the  intervening 
power  when  the  war  should  be  over.  We  could 
only  protect  our  position  there  by  another  Battle 
of  Manila,  our  unarmored  cruisers  against  their 
armored  ships.  That  means  that  we  should  have 
had  another  war  on  our  hands, — and  we  were  on 
the  brink  of  a  second  war  every  day  from  the  time 
Dewey  sunk  the  Spanish  fleet, — every  instant 
night  and  day. 

Senator  Lodge  in  his  admirable  work,  "  The  War 
with  Spain,"  thus  describes  Dewey's  situation: 

"  In  the  front  was  Spain,  an  open  and  public  • 
enemy  .  .  .  On  either  hand  were  warships  of 
unfriendly  powers,  watching  sullenly  and  eagerly 
for  any  error,  for  a  sign  of  weakness,  for  the  least 
excuse  for  interference.  All  around  Manila  were 
the  insurgents  .  .  .  untrustworthy,  treacherously 
led,  and  capable,  at  any  moment,  of  action  which 
might  endanger  our  relations  with  other  powers, 

25 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 
or  of  intriguing  with  these  same  powers  against 


us. 


NECESSARY   FOR    US   TO  RESTRAIN   AGUINALDO 

Dewey's  game  was  to  play  straight  ahead,  and 
he  did  it  to  perfection.  Before  any  American 
troops  had  arrived,  he  felt  it  necessary  to  hold 
back  Aguinaldo. 

Willis  John  Abbott  says  in  his  "  Blue  Jackets  of 
W>  332: 


"  Before  the  arrival  of  the  first  expedition  from 
the  United  States,  Aguinaldo  had  made  such 
progress  in  arming  and  organizing  the  natives 
that,  in  a  series  of  engagements  around  Manila  the 
Spaniards  were  worsted,  losing  heavily  and  being 
driven  into  the  lines  immediately  surrounding  the 
city.  .  .  By  the  last  of  May,  the  exultant  insur 
gents  were  within  seven  miles  of  the  city,  which 
their  lines  completely  surrounded,  and  their  pris 
oners  numbered  almost  three  thousand.  Then  the 
first  damper  was  put  upon  their  enthusiasm  by 
Admiral  Dewey  himself.  Fearing  that  if  the  city 
should  be  taken  by  the  insurgents,  there  would  re 
sult  a  sack  and  massacre,  which  would  compel  the 
intervention  of  the  other  armed  forces  in  the  har 
bor,  he  sent  word  to  Aguinaldo  that  the  advance 
must  be  stopped.  Between  the  Filipino  front  and 
the  town  lay  the  Malolele  River.  .  .  This  stream 
they  were  forbidden  to  cross.  '  If  you  do,'  said 

26 


DEWEY  AND  AGUINALDO 

Dewey,  '  I  will  send  the  Petrel  into  the  stream  to 
bombard  your  lines.' '; 


HELP   ARRIVES    FOR    DEWEY 

Dewey  had  to  wait  all  alone  a  long  time.  One 
thing  and  another  delayed  the  sending  of  relief 
and  help  to  him  until  it  was  about  three  months 
after  the  Battle  of  Manila  before  any  American 
troops  arrived;  but  when  they  did  begin  to  come 
in  they  came  rapidly,  and  by  the  first  of  August 
we  had  some  7000  or  8000  men  there. 

Then  the  load  began  to  lift  off  Dewey's  shoul 
ders  a  bit.  We  sent  him  about  the  best  we  had; 
Merritt,  Otis,  Lawton  and  MacArthur.  And 
then  one  morning  a  long,  black  hulk  showed  up  in 
the  harbor  carrying  some  1 3-inch  guns.  It  was  the 
monitor  Monterey  from  San  Francisco.  During 
the  very  night  following  the  afternoon  on  which 
the  Monterey  dropped  around  just  to  see  what  was 
going  on,  two  of  the  German  war  vessels  gave  up 
in  disgust  and  went  home.  Their  chance  had 
gone.  With  the  Monterey  there,  Dewey  could 
have  held  his  own  with  them  in  any  argument  that 
might  arise  and  it  was  not  for  that  that  they  were 
there. 

27 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

As  soon  as  the  troops  stretched  their  legs  on  the 
white  sands,  Dewey  and  Merritt  determined  to 
complete  the  subjugation  of  Spain's  eastern  pos 
sessions  and  preparations  were  made  for  captur 
ing  by  force  Manila  and  the  Spanish  army  that 
garrisoned  it  if  they  would  not  surrender  peaceably. 
Aguinaldo  had  the  entire  city  completely  surrounded 
on  the  land  sides.  The  first  thing  to  do  was  to  get 
him  out  of  the  way. 

This  was  finally  accomplished  after  a  good  deal 
of  difficulty,  without  an  open  break  between  the 
Americans  and  Aguinaldo,  and  then  Dewey  and 
Merritt  moved  the  American  forces  up  in  front  of 
where  the  Filipinos  had  placed  the  intrenchments 
investing  the  city.  This  done,  Dewey  and  Merritt 
then  notified  the  Spanish  Governor  that  they 
would  bombard  and  storm  the  city  in  forty-eight 
hours  (the  advance  notice  required  by  inter 
national  law  to  be  given  so  as  to  provide  all  non- 
combatants  an  opportunity  to  leave  the  vicinity), 
unless  it  be  surrendered  with  the  Spanish  army 
which  constituted  its  garrison. 


28 


DEWEY  AND  AGUINALDO 

GOVERNOR  OF  MANILA  SUBJECTS  WOMEN  AND  CHIL 
DREN  TO  PERILS  OF  BOMBARDMENT  RATHER  THAN 
LEAVE  THEM  TO  AGUINALDO 

To  this  demand,  the  Spanish  Governor  made  a 
refusal  and,  in  the  course  of  his  reply,  said : 

"  Finding  myself  surrounded  by  insurrectionary 
forces,  I  am  without  places  of  refuge  for  the  in 
creased  numbers  of  wounded,  sick,  women  and 
children  who  are  now  lodged  within  the  walls." 

Here  you  may  get  an  idea  of  how  the  Spanish 
Governor  regarded  Aguinaldo.  The  Governor 
was  afraid  to  trust  his  wounded,  sick,  women  or 
children  in  the  city  in  the  hands  of  Aguinaldo.  He 
preferred,  for  their  sakes,  to  subject  them  to  the 
perils  of  a  joint  bombardment  and  assault  of  a  hos 
tile  army.  When  you  hear  Aguinaldo  spoken  of 
as  the  George  Washington  of  the  Philippines,  it 
might  be  well  to  recall  this  remark  of  the  Spanish 
Governor-General. 

The  Spanish  refused  to  capitulate,  and  as  they 
did  not  dare  to  send  their  sick,  wounded,  and 
women  and  children  outside  the  city  where  Agui- 
naldo's  army  might  endanger  them,  the  Spanish 
Governor  kept  all  these  non-combatants  within  his 
29 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

own  lines.     This  made  the  task  of  the  Americans 
doubly  hard ;  but  they  were  equal  to  it. 

Here,  in  passing,  record  should  be  made  of  one 
thing  that  is  a  pleasant  memory.  Just  as  the 
hour  to  commence  the  bombardment  arrived,  the 
four  British  men-of-war  hauled  up  their  anchors 
and  solemnly  steamed  over  between  the  Germans 
and  the  Americans,  and  let  their  anchors  down 
there,  while  their  bands  played  "  The  Star- 
Spangled  Banner."  The  American  sailors  cheered 
this  movement  to  the  echo.  It  was  an  act  of 
friendship  at  a  time  when  friends  might  be  needed. 
It  was  a  little  thing;  but  it  told.  The  Germans 
would  have  had  to  shoot  through  the  English  men- 
of-war  before  they  could  have  gotten  in  range  of 
Dewey's  ships,  unless  the  latter  changed  their 
positions.  England  was  the  only  friend  we  had; 
but,  with  her,  no  other  was  needed. 

MANILA   SURRENDERS 

Dewey's  guns  were  trained  carefully  so  as  to 
do  no  further  damage  than  to  reduce  the  Spanish 
forts,  as  their  dismantling,  with  the  demonstration 
that  the  American  troops  would  make  on  the  land, 
was  believed  to  be  sufficient  to  cause  the  capitula- 
3° 


DEVVEY  AND  AGUINALDO 

tion  of  the  city  and,  of  course,  the  city  itself  could 
not  be  bombarded  while  it  was  filled  with  sick, 
wounded,  disabled  and  women  and  children. 

When  the  forts  had  been  reduced,  some  of  the 
American  troops  moved  forward  to  take  posses 
sion  of  them.  One  little  picture  that  Abbott 
draws  in  his  book  is  well  worth  quoting.  It  shows 
the  American  soldier  at  his  best. 

"  At  last,"  says  Abbott,  "  there  was  a  rattle  of 
musketry  from  the  shore,  and,  after  allowing  the 
smoke  to  clear  away,  the  men  on  the  ships  could 
see  a  column  of  men  advancing  up  the  beach  to 
ward  the  fort,  in  water  up  to  their  waists  .  .  .  but 
pressing  forward  with  cheers,  with  colors  waving 
and  with  a  band  stoutly  plodding  along  in  their 
rear,  from  which  there  came  faintly  over  the 
waters,  strains  of  a  novel  battle  song,  '  There'll  Be 
a  Hot  Time  in  the  Old  Town  To-night/  It  was 
the  ist  Colorado  Infantry." 

As  soon  as  the  forts  were  taken,  the  white  flags 
appeared  along  the  fortifications  surrounding  the 
city  and  the  Americans  entered  and  received  the 
formal  surrender  of  the  city  and  the  Spanish  army 
defending  it.  These  latter  were  disarmed  and 
treated  as  prisoners  of  war.  "This  was  on  the  I3th 
day  of  August,  1898,  three  and  one-half  months 
after  Manila  Bay. 

31 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

AGUINALDO'S  FORCES  HAD  TO  BE  KEPT  OUT  OF 
MANILA 

In  these  final  operations  Aguinaldo's  army  was 
requested  to  take  no  part,  because  Admiral  Dewey 
and  Generals  Merritt  and  Greene,  who  com 
manded  all  our  forces,  believed  that  Aguinaldo's 
army  could  not  be  held  in  restraint  if  it  ever  got 
inside  the  city  walls.  In  the  unanimous  judgment 
of  all  these  commanders,  Aguinaldo's  army  would 
do  everything  in  its  power  to  loot  and  sack  the 
city.  That  we  could  not  allow.  To  prevent  it, 
General  Greene,  on  the  I2th  of  August,  the  night 
before  the  attack  was  to  be  made,  notified  Agui- 
naldo  that  the  latter's  army  was  not  to  take  any 
hand  at  all  in  the  next  day's  operations,  nor  in  the 
occupation  of  Manila  upon  its  capitulation. 

Of  this  action  of  Dewey,  Merritt  and  Greene, 
Mr.  Abbott  says,  in  his  history: 

"  The  sufficient  justification  for  the  restraint  put 
upon  the  insurgents  is  the  fact  that,  had  they  been 
admitted  to  the  city  before  the  American  authority 
was  complete  and  arrangements  for  the  protection 
of  life  and  property  perfected,  they  would,  beyond 
a  shadow  of  a  doubt,  have  sacked  and  looted  the 
town."  (Blue  Jackets  of  '98,  p.  344.) 

32 


DEWEY  AND  AGUINALDO 

Mr.  Lodge  says  of  them  (Hist,  of  the  Spanish 
War): 

"  These  natives  wanted  to  kill  and  plunder  .  .  . 
Behind  them  (the  American  troops)  would  come 
the  insurgents  with  pillage,  bloodshed  and  fire  in 
their  train. 

"  The  American  troops  posted  at  the  bridges 
and  approaches  to  the  city,  holding  back  the  in 
surgents,  forbidding  their  entrance  entirely,  deter 
mined  that  there  should  be  no  pillage,  no  slaugh 
ter,  no  burning." 

Now  I  want  to  call  attention  to  an  incident  that 
throws  another  light  on  Aguinaldo's  army  and 
their  code  of  morals.  It  is  as  follows,  as  taken 
from  Mr.  Lodge's  book,  p.  338 : 

"  In  spite  of  this  request  (that  Aguinaldo  would 
not  join  at  all  in  the  attack),  when  General 
Greene's  advance  guard  reached  the  walls  of 
Manila,  they  were  followed  by  a  considerable 
number  of  natives  who,  by  their  superior  knowl 
edge  of  the  roads,  rushed  ahead  of  our  troops  and 
opened  fire  at  once  upon  the  5000  or  6000  Spanish 
soldiers  on  the  walls  of  the  city,  regardless  of  the 
fact  that  at  that  time  the  Spaniards  had  ceased 
firing  and  the  white  flag  was  flying  from  the  forti 
fications.  This  unprovoked  attack  precipitated  a 
renewal  of  the  firing  on  our  troops  resulting  in 
the  death  of  one  and  the  wounding  of  two  of  the 
1st  California  Volunteers." 

33 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

Maj.  Gen.  Merritt's  report  of  the  capture  of  Ma 
nila  contains  the  following: 


( In  leaving  the  subject  of  the  operations  .  .  . 
I  submit  that  for  troops  to  enter  under  fire  a  town 
covering  a  large  area,  to  rapidly  deploy  and  guard 
all  principal  points  in  the  extensive  suburbs,  to  keep 
out  the  insurgent  forces  pressing  for  admission, 
.  .  .  and,  finally,  by  all  this,  to  prevent  entirely 
all  rapine,  pillage,  and  disorder,  and  gain  entire  and 
complete  possession  of  a  city  of  300,000  people, 
filled  with  natives  hostile  to  the  European  interests, 
.  .  was  an  act  which  only  the  law-abiding,  tem 
perate,  resolute  American  soldier  .  .  .  could  ac 
complish." 

When  it  came  to  putting  in  writing  the  actual 
terms  of  the  capitulation  of  Manila,  the  Spaniards 
wanted  all  sorts  of  things  defined: — what  they 
could  and  could  not  do  and  what  we  could  and 
could  not  do ;  but  we  proposed  to  put  in  this  sentence 
instead  of  all  these  qualifications,  permissions  and 
conditions : 

'  This  city,  its  inhabitants,  its  churches  and  re 
ligious  worship,  its'  educational  establishments  and 
its  private  property  of  all  descriptions  are  placed 
under  the  special  safeguard  of  the  faith  and  honor 
of  the  American  army.'' 

34 


DEWEY  AND  AGUINALDO 

After  thinking  it  all  over,  the  Spaniards  were 
quite  content  to  leave  the  whole  thing  just  that  way, 
— "under  the  special  safeguard  of  the  faith  and 
honor  of  the  American  army"  and  the  Spaniards 
were  perfectly  safe  in  so  doing.  The  American 
army  never  received  a  higher  tribute  from  its  best 
friends.  This  one  came  from  its  mortal  enemy. 

And  when  the  day  was  done  and  he  sat  out  on 
deck  in  his  wicker  chair,  with  his  Scotch  collie  be 
side  him,  and,  looking  across  the  bay,  saw  for  the 
first  time  the  old  Stars  and  Stripes  waving  softly  to 
and  fro  in  the  evening  breeze  over  the  palace  of  the 
Spanish  Governor-General,  Dewey  folded  his  hands 
and  said  to  Brumby,  "  I  feel  that  I  have  won  a 
greater  victory  than  that  of  May  first."  And  he 
had.  In  the  years  that  are  to  come,  Dewey's 
greatest  work,  if  I  mistake  not,  the  work  that  de 
manded  the  greatest  and  broadest  qualities  will  be 
deemed  not  the  Battle  of  Manila,  but  the  course  and 
measures  by  which,  with  only  half  a  dozen  un- 
armored  ships,  he,  for  three  long  months,  kept  Ma 
nila  and  the  Spanish  army  and  the  insurgents  and 
the  hostile  navies  of  Europe  all  working  in  har 
mony  toward  the  accomplishment  of  his  one  pur 
pose,  namely,  the  actual  occupation  by  the  United 

35 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

States  of  the  City  of  Manila,  and  the  surrender  of 
the  Spanish  army  which  garrisoned  it.  It  was  a 
fearful  team  to  drive,  but  he  kept  them  in  the  road 
until  he  got  the  load  safely  into  the  barn  and  the 
door  shut. 


CHAPTER   IV 

MR.  McKINLEY'S  PROBLEMS 

INTERNATIONAL      OBLIGATIONS      ASSUMED     BY     THE 
UNITED  STATES 

BY  a  curious  coincidence,  for  the  second  time  in 
our  history,  a  decisive  blow  was  struck  by  us  in  a 
war  after  peace  had  actually  been  declared  between 
our  opponents  and  ourselves.  The  first  was  the  bat 
tle  of  New  Orleans,  which  took  place  January  8, 
1815,  although  the  treaty  of  peace  (Ghent)  was 
signed  on  the  preceding  December  24th ;  the  second 
was  the  capitulation  of  the  city  of  Manila  and  the 
Spanish  army  defending  it.  This  took  place 
twenty-four  hours  after  the  signing  of  the 
Protocol  providing  for  the  cessation  of  hostil 
ities  between  Spain  and  ourselves.  In  neither 
case,  of  course,  did  either  party  know  that  the 
war  had  ended.  Whether  the  Protocol  of  the 
1 2th  of  August,  the  3d  condition  of  which  provided 
that  the  United  States  should  hold  and  occupy  the 

37 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

city  and  bay  of  Manila  pending  the  conclusion  of  a 
treaty  of  peace  which  should  determine  "  the  con 
trol,  disposition  and  government  of  the  Philip 
pines,"  superseded  or  only  acted  co-ordinately  with 
the  capitulation  of  the  next  day  it  is  unnecessary  to 
consider.  Under  either  capitulation  or  Protocol, 
our  obligations  were  the  same  toward  everybody. 
Either  way  the  question  be  decided,  the  fact  remains 
that  we  were  in  "  military  occupation  "  of  Manila. 
That  is  the  important  point,  not  how  it  was  that  we 
occupied  Manila  but  that  we  did  occupy  it. 

Then  the  situation  sharply  changed.  The  United 
States  military  and  naval  forces  took  possession. 
The  moment  that  military  occupation  took  place  the 
United  States  assumed  new  liabilities.  What  they 
are  has  already  been  well  defined.  We  went  over 
the  authorities  sometime  ago  when  we  were  con 
sidering  why  Dewey  had  to  have  help  before  he 
could  accept  the  surrender  of  Manila  and  its  gar 
rison.  These  new  liabilities  were  the  same  that 
Spain  had  before  the  surrender. 

The  obligations  that  would  have  attached  to  us  on 
May  I,  1898,  had  Dewey  then  taken  Manila  and  its 
garrison,  are  the  same  obligations  that  we  actually 
did  assume  on  the  I3th  of  August,  1898. 

38 


MR.   McKINLEY'S  PROBLEMS 

To  sum  up  these  authorities,  they  all  mean  that 
both  by  the  capitulation  of  Manila  on  the  I3th  of 
August  and  by  the  Protocol  of  the  i2th,  we  we/e 
charged  by  international  law  and  by  our  own  laws 
to  "  provide  for  the  administration  of  justice  "  there 
from  August  13,  1898,  and,  by  the  Hague  2nd  Con 
vention,  we  were  bound  to  "take  all  steps  in  (our) 
power  to  re-establish  and  insure,  so  far  as  possible, 
public  order  and  safety "  in  Manila,  or,  as  Mr. 
Adams  puts  it,  "  by  all  the  efforts  in  (our)  power." 


BY  LAW 

Mr.  McKinley's  hands  were  tied,  and  his  course 
directed,  by  his  oath  of  office,  by  the  foregoing  au 
thorities.  The  following  is  sufficient  to  restate  here : 

Mr.  Hannis  Taylor,  in  §  579,  says : 

"  Hostile  territory  subdued  by  the  armies  of  the 
United  States  does  not  pass  under  the  dominion 
either  of  its  constitution  or  its  laws.  .  .  While  war 
continues  it  is  the  military  duty  of  the  President  as 
.Commander-in-chief,  to  provide  for  the  security  of 
persons  and  property,  and  for  the  administration  of 
justice.  (The  Grape  Shop,  9  Wall.  129.)  Such 
government  may  be  carried  on  under  an  entirely  new 
code  made  by  the  authority  of  the  Commander-in- 
chief."  (Scott  v.  Bilgerry,  40  Miss.  119.) 

39 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

Now  we  have  the  problem  right  in  front  of  us. 
If  you  had  been  President  of  the  United  States  what 
would,  what  could  you  have  done  if  you  had  had  it 
to  do  ?  As  President,  you  would  have  been  charged 
with  protecting  the  lives  and  property  of  every 
peaceable  person  in  Manila.  You  would  have  done 
it  if  you  could.  That  was  what  President  McKin- 
ley  did — nothing  more.  We  were  getting  into 
strained  relations  with  Aguinaldo's  troops,  some 
20,000  or  30,000  of  whom  were  just  outside  of  our 
lines  surrounding  the  city,  clamoring  to  get  in. 
Would  you  have  withdrawn  any  of  the  troops  that 
we  had  there  with  Aguinaldo's  men  watching  for  a 
chance  to  get  by  us?  No.  Nobody  would  suggest 
such  a  thing.  We  had  to  do  everything  in  our 
power  to  maintain  order.  We  should  not  have  done 
that  if  we  had  withdrawn  any  of  our  troops,  and  so- 
Mr.  McKinley  simply  kept  them  there. 

Soon  up  came  the  question  of  the  basis  upon 
which  we  should  settle  the  war.  Almost  exactly  a 
third  of  the  entire  Spanish  Empire,  both  in  extent 
and  in  people,  was  comprised  in  the  Philippines, 
and  I  am  informed  and  I  believe  that  Mr.  McKinley 
considered  the  situation  in  this  way,  viz. :  "  Ac 
cording  to  the  best  information  now  at  our  disposi- 
40 


MR.   McKINLEY'S  PROBLEMS 

tion,  it  would  appear  that  the  Filipinos  are  probably 
not  now  capable  of  self-government.  Fortunately 
or  not  for  us,  we  are  the  controlling  factor  in  the 
Philippines.  If  the  inhabitants  cannot  govern  them 
selves  and  we  withdraw,  the  chances  are  that  there 
will  be  a  reign  of  terror — chaos.  That  will  con 
tinue  unless  stopped  by  the  seizure  of  the  islands 
by  some  other  nation.  If  that  other  nation  does 
step  in,  it  is  likely  to  enslave,  practically,  the  Fili 
pinos  and  forever  condemn  them  to  the  same  soVt  of 
tyranny,  misrule,  plunder  and  ignorance  as  that 
which  they  have  suffered  for  three  centuries  under 
Spain.  A  monarchy  usually  maintains  colonies  only 
for  what  it  can  get  out  of  them — for  what  it  can 
milk  them. 

"  If  we  are  to  gauge  the  future  fate  of  the  pros 
pective  Filipino  colonist  by  his  experience  under 
Spain,  the  difference  between  chaos  and  a  colony 
is  not  very  great. 

"  There  seems  to  be  no  course  but  one  of  these, 
chaos  or  colony,  that  is  open  to  the  Filipino  (un 
less  he  can  govern  himself),  if  we  fail  to  take 
hold  of  him.  If  we  stay  where  we  are,  there  will 
be  no  chaos — there  will  be  no  colony  on  the  usual 
European  basis  of  plunder,  poverty,  ignorance  and 
41 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

overtaxation.  If  the  Filipino  can  now  govern 
himself,  we'll  withdraw  immediately.  If  he  cannot, 
we'll  try  to  lead  him  along  till  he  can.  He'll  be  safe 
as  long  as  we  stay,  and  he  may  be  unsafe  if  we 
evacuate  just  now.  Then  we  will  stay  until  we  find 
out  more  about  him.  In  case  it  develops  that  he 
cannot  now  govern  himself  he  will  never  be  willfully 
mistreated  by  us. 

"  Instead  of  designedly  and  deliberately  regulat 
ing  our  conduct  with  the  Filipino,  in  case  he  cannot 
govern  himself,  so  as  to  keep  him  helpless,  ignorant, 
poor  and,  therefore,  always  under  our  heel,  we  are 
the  only  people  on  this  globe,  or  who  have  ever  been 
on  it,  unless  we  except  the  English,  who  will  try  to 
make  the  Filipinos  stronger,  better  educated,  better 
civilized — FREE.  The  policy  of  the  American 
people,  if  it  takes  hold  of  the  Filipino,  will  be  to 
make  him  a  free  man  just  as  soon  as  he  can  walk 
alone.  If  our  history  means  anything,  it  means 
that.  All  history  does  not  record  an  instance  in 
which  a  nation  has  deliberately  gone  about  build 
ing  up  one  of  its  neighbors  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
making  the  latter  stronger  and  better — for  the  sole 
purpose  of  making  the  latter  free  and  independent. 
But  we  shall  do  it  in  Cuba.  We  shall  do  it  in  Porto 
42 


MR.   McKINLEY'S  PROBLEMS 

Rico,  and  the  American  people  can  be  trusted  to  do 
it  in  the  Philippines  " — and  William  McKinley  in 
structed  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  States, 
who  were  to  try  to  negotiate  a  treaty  of  peace  with 
Spain,  that  they  demand  that  the  Philippines  should 
come  to  us,  and  on  December  10,  1898,  the  treaty 
that  brought  about  that  object  was  signed  in  Paris. 
Of  course,  that  would  not  go  into  effect  until  ratified 
by  each  government  and  copies  exchanged,  but  the 
whole  world  felt  that  it  was  probably  only  a  ques 
tion  of  a  few  weeks  at  the  most  when  we  should 
have  the  legal  possession  of  the  islands.  As  a  mat 
ter  of  fact,  the  treaty  took  effect  on  April  12,  1899, 
some  four  months  after  its  signing." 

MR.  MCKINLEY'S  EFFORTS  TO  FIND  OUT  THE  FACTS 

As  soon  as  the  Treaty  was  signed,  Mr.  McKinley 
set  about  a  systematic  attempt  to  obtain  information 
upon  which  we  would  decide  whether  or  not  we 
were  to  turn  the  Philippines  over  to  their  inhabitants 
to  govern,  or  whether  we  would  have  to  stay  there 
to  help  them  for  a  time.  Mr.  McKinley  couldn't  go 
himself,  so  he  did  what  would  seem  to  be  the  next 
best  thing;  and  that  was  to  send  a  committee  over 
there  of  the  ablest  men  he  could  pick  out  to  report 
43 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

to  him  on  these  matters.  Until  they  had  reported 
Mr.  McKinley  evidently  intended  to  do  nothing — 
absolutely  nothing — except  to  preserve  order.  In 
that  course  of  inaction,  he,  of  course,  showed  sound 
judgment.  Only  a  man  of  little  experience  in  large 
affairs  has  a  policy  before  he  knows  all  about  the 
problem.  Mr.  McKinley  was  not  that  sort  of  a  man. 
Fourteen  years  in  Congress,  a  number  of  which 
were  spent  at  the  head  of  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee  that  says  how  we  shall  raise  our  revenue 
and  how  much  it  shall  be,  a  matter  of  $500,000,000 
or  so  every  year,  had  made  him  very  careful. 

QUALIFICATIONS  OF  THE  MEMBERS  OF  MR.  MCKIN- 
LEY'S  FIRST  COMMISSION 

Let  us  look  at  the  men  he  selected  to  do  this  ex 
ceedingly  important  work.  As  Chairman,  he  se 
lected  Hon.  Jacob.  G.  Schurman,  President  of  Cor 
nell  University,  a  Republican,  a  man  then  forty-six 
years  of  age,  born  in  Prince  Edward  Island;  edu 
cated  by  two  years  at  Acadia  College,  three  years 
in  the  University  of  London,  two  years  divided 
between  the  Universities  of  Berlin,  Heidelberg, 
Gottingen  and  independent  study  in  Italy.  On 
his  return  to  America  he  was  Professor  of  English 

44 


MR.  McKINLEY'S  PROBLEMS 

Literature  and  Political  Economy  at  Acadia  Col 
lege;  then  for  two  years  he  was  professor  in  the 
same  studies  in  Dalhousie  College,  Halifax;  from 
there  he  went  to  Cornell  to  become  the  head  of  the 
Department  of  Philosophy,  and  was  shortly  after 
ward  made  President  of  that  University,  which  po 
sition  he  has  held  ever  since.  He  is  a  deep  student 
of  philosophical  subjects  and  has  published  three  or 
four  works  in  that  field. 

Next  was  George  Dewey,  then  sixty-two  years  of 
age,  a  Vermonter,  root  and  branch.  As  he  was 
born  on  the  Hog  River,  I  can  see  the  only  justifica 
tion  the  Spanish  ever  had  for  calling  him  an 
"  American  pig."  Dewey  is  a  college  man,  a  grad 
uate  of  Norwich  University  and  an  Annapolis  man, 
too.  He  was  a  midshipman  in  1854,  a  Lieutenant 
in  '6 1,  a  Commander  in  1872,  a  Commodore 
in  1896,  a  Rear  Admiral,  May  13,  1898,  and 
soon  to  be  Admiral — all  this  time  without  a  single 
black  mark  against  him.  He  had  been  for  nearly  a 
year  in  and  about  Manila  and,  therefore,  knew  the 
details  of  the  questions  that  would  be  raised  better 
than  anybody  else  we  could  obtain.  He  was  a 
Democrat. 

Hon.  Charles  Denby,  a  Democrat,  of  Indiana,  was 
45 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

the  next  selection;  a  man  then  sixty-nine  years  of 
age,  a  Virginia  boy,  who  had  lived  in  France  thir 
teen  years  before  he  was  seventeen,  a  college  man 
and  a  college  professor,  a  newspaper  editor,  a  lawyer 
of  highest  standing,  a  legislator,  a  Colonel  in  the 
Rebellion,  Minister  to  China  for  thirteen  years,  re 
maining  undisturbed  when  the  Republicans  came 
into  power  during  that  period,  so  high  was  his 
standing;  the  ablest  diplomat,  except  John  Hay,  in 
our  service  and  so  recognized  generally. 

Prof.  Dean  C.  Worcester,  another  Vermonter, 
a  graduate  of  Ann  Arbor,  assistant-professor 
of  Zoology  in  that  college  and  a  man  who  had  re 
cently  spent  several  years  in  the  Philippines  on  two 
different  expeditions,  making  collections  for  his 
work,  during  which  trips  he  had  thoroughly  ex 
plored  much  of  the  islands  and  obtained  wide  ac 
quaintance  with  their  geography,  their  peoples  and 
their  customs.  He  was  the  encyclopedia  of  the 
committee. 

The  final  member  was  Maj.-Gen.  Otis,  U.  S. 
A.,  a  Maryland  boy,  born  in  1838  and,  therefore, 
sixty-one  years  of  age  at  this  time;  a  graduate 
of  the  University  of  Rochester  and  of  the  Harvard 
Law  School;  a  Captain  and  Brevet  Brigadier-gen- 
46 


MR.   McKINLEY'S  PROBLEMS 

eral  in  the  Rebellion.  A  wound  that  has  never 
healed  compelled  him  to  abandon  the  law  and  re 
main  in  the  army,  where  he  could  be  out-of-doors, 
and  from  a  Lieutenant-colonel  in  the  regular  army 
in  1866  he  rose  to  be  a  Colonel  in  1880,  a  Brigadier 
in  1893  and  a  Major-general  in  1898.  From  the 
'6o's  to  the  '90*5  he  was  in  about  all  the  Indian 
troubles  we  had,  and  always  honorably  and  with 
distinction.  At  the  time  of  his  appointment  to  this 
committee,  or  commission,  he  had  for  four  or  five 
months  been  in  command  of  all  our  forces  in 
Manila. 

I  fail  to  see  how  the  President  could  have  chosen 
a  stronger  committee.  They  were  all  of  great  and 
varied  experience,  learning  and  travel  and  had  had 
to  study  different  peoples — a  college  president,  the 
Admiral  to-be  of  the  United  States  Navy,  the  best 
trained  diplomat  we  had,  except  John  Hay,  one  of 
the  three  major-generals  of  the  army  and  a  college 
professor,  all  but  one  of  whom  were  on  the  ground 
or  perfectly  familiar  with  it.  Can  anyone  suggest 
a  weak  place  in  it  ?  I  don't  believe  any  of  us  could 
have  improved  upon  it  as  a  whole. 

If  we  had  sent  them  out  there  to  report  to  us  on 
what  they  found,  we  would  have  relied  upon  their 
47 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

representations,  wouldn't  we:  else,  why  should  we 
have  sent  them? 

SUBSTANCE  OF  THEIR  REPORT  TO  MR.   MCKINLEY 

Now  let  us  see  what  they  reported  to  the  Presi 
dent,  as  their  unanimous  judgment — Democrats  and 
Republicans,  soldier,  sailor,  diplomat,  college  pro 
fessor.  While  they  were  on  their  way  to  the  Philip 
pines  our  troops  were  attacked  by  Aguinaldo's  men, 
and,  when  the  Commission  reached  Manila,  we  were 
engaged  in  a  war  with  the  army  gathered  by  him. 

Here  is  an  extract  from  the  report  of  the  Com 
mission  : 

'  Their  (the  Filipinos')  lack  of  education  and 
political  experience,  combined  with  their  racial  and 
linguistic  diversities,  disqualify  them,  in  spite  of 
their  mental  gifts  and  domestic  virtues,  to  under 
take  the  task  of  governing  the  archipelago  at  the 
present  time.  .  .  Should  our  power,  by  any 
fatality,  be  withdrawn,  the  commission  believes  that 
the  government  of  the  Philippines  would  speedily 
lapse  into  anarchy,  which  would  excuse,  if  it  did  not 
necessitate,  the  intervention  of  other  powers,  and 
the  eventual  division  of  the  islands  among  them. 
Only  through  American  occupation,  therefore,  is  the 
idea  of  a  free,  self-governing  and  united  Philippine 
commonwealth  at  all  conceivable." 

The  Commission  simply  confirmed  the  view  that 
the  President  had  feared  to  be  the  truth  when  he  de- 


MR.   McKINLEY'S  PROBLEMS 

manded  the  cession  of  the  islands.  So  our  remain 
ing  there  as  long  as  we  had  was  justified  and  it  be 
came  apparent  that  Mr.  McKinley  had  proceeded 
safely,  mercifully  and  wisely  when  he  decided  to 
stay  until  he  knew  whether  or  not  the  Filipino  could 
govern  himself. 

Now,  what  could  we  do  in  the  face  of  that  report  ? 
That  was  the  exact  question  confronting  Mr.  Mc 
Kinley.  He  had  to  meet  it  squarely  and  do  some 
thing  with  it.  He  couldn't  dodge  it.  He  couldn't 
postpone  it.  He  had  to  decide,  now,  finally.  All 
the  facts  were  now  before  him.  There  was  no 
longer  ignorance  to  justify  inaction. 

Let  us  dissect  this  report  and  see  what  the  Presi 
dent's  problem's  were : 

1.  The  commission  said  the  Filipinos  were  unable 
to  undertake  the  task  of  governing  the  archipelago 
at  the  present  time. 

2.  The  commission  said  that  if  the  United  States 
were  to  withdraw,  the  islands  would  lapse  into  an 
archy  and  that  would  mean  that  the  great  powers 
would  step  in  to  protect  their  citizens  and  property 
there  and  would  divide  the  islands  among  them 
selves. 

3.  The  commission   said,   by  implication,  which 

49 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

was,  of  course,  true,  that  if  the  European  powers 
did  divide  or  take  the  islands  there  was  no  hope  that 
the  Philippines  could  ever  be  independent.  Europe 
isn't  in  the  business  of  setting  up  republics.  Europe 
would  only  take  these  islands  to  squeeze,  to  milk,  to 
bleed  them  just  as  Spain  had  done  for  the  300  years 
just  passed. 

It  came  up  sharply  to  Mr.  McKinley, — "  If  we 
desert  them,  they  will  lapse  into  anarchy  and  then 
go  to  the  Great  Powers  to  be  forever,  practically, 
slaves.  If  we  take  them,  they  will  be  free  as  soon 
as  they  can  walk  alone."  In  the  former  case  they 
had  no  chance  of  ever  being  free.  In  the  latter  they 
had — and  I  believe  this  is  the  exact  reason  that 
made  Mr.  McKinley  advocate  the  cession  of  the 
islands  to  us  by  the  Treaty  of  Peace.  Such  a  rea 
son  would  be  entirely  in  accord  with  his  character, 
almost  any  other  reason  is  inconsistent  therewith, 
and  if  we  ever  had  a  President  who  would  take  such 
a  stand  William  McKinley  was  that  man! 

MR.  MCKINLEY  DECIDES  ON  THEIR  REPORT  AS  A  BASIS 

Mr.  McKinley  had,  I  say,  to  decide;  and  I  doubt 
if  it  took  him  very  long.  No  person  needing  help 
ever  appealed  to  William  McKinley  in  vain.  Mr. 


MR.   McKINLEY'S  PROBLEMS 

McKinley  decided  that  it  was  our  duty  not  to  desert 
the  Filipinos — that,  as  he  said,  "  There  must  be  no 
scuttle  policy " — and  that  the  American  people 
would  back  him  up;  and,  as  always,  his  mind  once 
made  up,  he  could  not  be  swerved;  and  he  poured 
our  troops  over  there  to  establish  order  and  to  main 
tain  it.  Then  Aguinaldo  found  out  that  his  dream 
of  revenge  on  the  Spaniards  and  of  making  his  tribe 
the  ruler  of  the  rest  of  the  races  was  going  to 
vanish  in  smoke.  Then  the  great  mass  of  the  Fili 
pino  people,  who  were  peaceful,  found  that  the 
United  States  Army  would  protect  them  against  the 
terrible  cruelties  that  Aguinaldo's  bands  inflicted 
with  great  frequency  upon  those  who  would  not 
join  him. 

A  fair  and  the  most  reasonable  statement  of  what 
Aguinaldo  was  doing  seems  to  be  to  say  that 
his  efforts  probably  were  directed  at  securing  the 
control  of  all  the  tribes  in  the  Philippines  for  his 
own  race.  No  other  explanation  of  his  frightful 
butchery  of  the  peaceful,  great  mass  of  the  people 
appears  to  be  consistent  with  any  other  motive.  If 
freedom  for  the  Filipinos  was  his  object,  then  for 
the  first  time  in  the  world's  history,  if  I  read  it 
aright,  has  a  deliverer  deemed  it  necessary  to  kill 
those  for  whom  he  was  laboring. 

51 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND  STRIKES 

THE   BLOW    FROM    BEHIND   FALLS   ON    OUR    SOLDIERS 

JUST  as  we  were  in  the  hottest  of  our  campaign 
against  Aguinaldo  which  we  were  waging  to  protect 
the  great  mass  of  the  Filipinos  and  to  meet  our  ob 
ligations  which  we  had  assumed  toward  other  na 
tions,  there  struck  our  army  over  there,  what  the 
Hon.  John  Barrett,  late  our  Minister  to  Siam,  called 
"  The  blow  from  behind." 

As  if  out  of  the  ground,  there  arose  in  this  coun 
try  a  set  of  people  calling  themselves  anti-imperial 
ists.  They  were  first  seen  in  Boston.  These  people 
said  that  if  it  were  not  for  them,  this  republic  would 
become  an  empire;  and  they  had  come  to  prevent 
that.  They  said  that  if  we  kept  on  trying  to  save 
the  Filipinos  from  Aguinaldo  and  anarchy,  this  re 
public  would  pass  from  the  earth  and  an  empire 
would  rise  in  its  stead.  They  took  to  print,  and 
they  flooded  the  mails  with  pamphlets  called  "  The 
5* 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND   STRIKES 

Anti-Imperialist."  The  cover  states  that  these  pam 
phlets  are  "  published  at  intervals."  I  fail  to  recog 
nize  the  place,  but,  after  studying  what  lies  between 
the  covers,  I  am  glad  that  I  am  unable  to  find  the 
place  on  the  map;  if  I  could,  I  should  be  forever 
avoiding  it. 

These  publications  attracted  great  attention.  They 
were  quoted  by  all  the  papers  and  people  who  are 
usually  "  anti "  everything  that  the  most  of  the 
world  believes  in,  as  if  the  statistics  and  statements 
in  them  were  the  law  and  the  prophets.  These  pam 
phlets  present  a  truly  terrific  array  of  figures  that 
would  sicken  the  stoutest  heart  of  our  work  in  the 
Philippines.  The  high  priest  of  this  "  Anti-Impe 
rialist  "  is  Edward  Atkinson  of  Boston,  a  gentleman, 
who,  I  believe,  has  secured  the  printing  of  more  sta 
tistics  with  respect  to  matters  that  had  nothing  to  do 
with  his  own  vocation,  which  is,  I  am  informed,  that 
of  fire  insurance,  than  probably  anybody  else  in  the 
universe. 

These  figures  presented  by  Mr.  Atkinson  in  these 
books  have,  I  believe,  not  heretofore  been  examined 
with  a  microscope,  but  it  is  purposed  to  turn  one 
right  on  to  them  here,  for  it  is  desired  to  place  the 
anti-imperialists,  so  far  as  I  may  be  able  to  do  it, 
53 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

in  their  proper  and  exact  place  before  the  country. 
I  cannot  hope  to  do  much;  but  I  believe  I  can  do 
something.  Let  us  see  what  sort  of  statements  were 
the  backbone  and  foundation  of  this  anti-imperialist 
movement.  Let  us  see  what  they  were  worth. 
What  was  its  real,  actual  basis?  Was  it  a  solid 
one?  I  undertake  to  say  that  it  was  a  foundation 
of  sand,  that  there  was  not  a  single  sound  timber  in 
its  supports  and  that  the  whole  case  was  founded 
upon  misrepresentation,  libel,  deceit  and  falsehood. 

These  are  strong  accusations;  but  the  facts  are 
here.  In  the  first  place,  let  us  consider  Mr.  At 
kinson's  statements  of  the  cost  of  this  war  in  the 
Philippines.  His  pamphlets  were  devoted  almost 
exclusively  to  proving  two  things;  first,  that  the 
money  cost  of  the  war  would  lead  to  an  enormous 
deficit  in  our  treasury,  and  second,  that  the  loss  in 
lives  and  the  suffering  of  our  soldiers  would  be 
awful. 

What  I  propose  to  do  is  to  parallel  column  his 
prophecies  with  the  facts. 


54 


CHAPTER  VI 

ATKINSON'S   RIDICULOUS    FINANCE 

EDWARD  ATKINSON'S  FINANCIAL  PROPHECIES  PROVEN 
RIDICULOUS  AND  FULL  OF  MISSTATEMENTS 

HERE  is  Mr.  Atkinson's  record  in  his  own  books, 
and  he  and  we  must  stand  by  the  results  here 
shown.  Here  is  Vol.  I  of  the  "  Anti-Imperialist." 
On  p.  8  is  this  heading  in  large  type. 

PROSPECTIVE  DEFICIT 
IN  THE  FISCAL  YEAR  ENDING  JUNE  30,    IQOO,  $I5O,- 

000,000,  probably  more. 

BY   EDWARD   ATKINSON. 

Now  what  is  the  fact?    What   was  the  deficit 

"IN    THE    FISCAL    YEAR    ENDING    JUNE    30,    IQOO?" 

"A  DEFICIT  OF  $150,000,000,  probably  more"  he 
puts  it,  in  italics. 

Now  let  us  go  to  the  fountain  head  on  this  matter. 
Here  is  the  annual  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  Mr.  Lyman  J.  Gage,  on  the  state  of  the 
55 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

finances  for  the   fiscal  year  ended  June  30,   1900. 
On  page  vii  we  find  this : 

"  Treasury  Department, 
"  Washington,  Dec.  4,  1900. 

"  Sir:  (To  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives)  I  have  the  honor  to  submit  the  following 
report. 

"  Receipts  and  Expenditures. 

"  Fiscal  Year,  1900. 

"  The  revenues  of  the  government  from  all 
sources  for  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1900, 
were:  Total  receipts,  $567,000,000,  total  expendi 
tures  $488,000,000,  showing  a  surplus  of  $79,000,- 


ooo." 


(Postal  service  items  are  left  out  of  Mr.  Atkin 
son's  calculations  and,  therefore  out  of  all  calcula 
tions  herein,  as  well.  Also  all  amounts,  as  a  rule, 
are  made  -into  even  millions  by  dropping  all  except 
the  millions  of  the  exact  figures.)  Mr.  Atkin 
son  says  in  large  type  and  italics,  "PROSPECTIVE 

DEFICIT  IN  THE  FISCAL  YEAR  ENDING  JUNE  30,  1900: 

—$150,000,000,— probably  more.''  That  is,  Mr. 
Atkinson  was  $229,000,000  out  of  the  way !  He  said 
a  deficit  of  $150,000,000;  we  had  a  surplus  of 
$79,000,000  and  he  was  the  sum  of  those  two  from 
the  correct  figures,— $229,000,000,— nearly  half  of 
all  our  expenditures  for  the  whole  year,  which  were 

56 


ATKINSON'S  RIDICULOUS  FINANCE 

only  $488,000,000;  if  he  had  been  $15,000,000  more 
wrong  he  would  have  made  an  error  exactly 
equal  to  one  half  our  total  expenditures  for  the 
year; — one  half  of  all  our  expenditures  being  $244,- 
000,000 ;  and  he  was  wrong  $229,000,000 ! 

Now  let  us  take  his  next  statement ;  "  In  respect 
to  revenue,  if  the  sovereignty  of  the  United  States 
is  extended  over  the  Philippine  Islands,  Porto  Rico 
and  Cuba,  the  expected  customs  revenue  computed 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  at  $205,000,000 
will  be  diminished  by  about  $75,000,000 ;  for  reasons 
which  will  be  subsequently  given."  (That  is,  they 
will  be  only  $130,000,000.) 

Now  what  is  the  fact?  He  says  that  they  will  be 
$130,000,000  only.  The  1900  report  of  the  secretary 
of  the  treasury,  p.  vii.,  2d  item,  says  "  received 
from  customs,  $233,000,000."  Mr.  Atkinson  said 
$130,000,000;  we  received  $233,000,000;  on  this 
single  item,  then,  Mr.  Atkinson  is  wrong  $103,000,- 
ooo. 

In  the  very  next  paragraph  of  this  pamphlet,  Mr. 
Atkinson  says : 

"  The  army  and  navy  estimates  appear  to  be  very 
inadequate.  For  reasons  hereafter  given  it  is  prob 
able  that  the  expenditures  must  be  increased  to 
about  eight  dollars  per  head,  or  from  $540,000,000 
to  $624,000,000." 

57 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

Now  let  us  examine  that  statement.  In  the  first 
place  he  says  "  the  army  and  navy  estimates  appear 
to  be  very  inadequate."  Now  let  us  see  about  that. 
What  were  the  army  and  navy  estimates.  Here  they 
are,  army,  $190,000,000;  navy,  $47,000,000.  Mr. 
Gage  says  in  his  report  that  the  actual  figure  of  ex 
penditures  for  that  year  were,  army,  $134,000,000, 
(Mr.  Gage's  estimate  was  $190,000,000)  and  navy, 
$55,000,000  (and  his  estimate  was  $47,000,000)  ; 
that  is,  the  estimates  of  the  secretary  called  for  a 
total  of  $237,000,000, — his  expenses  were  $189,000,- 
ooo  (or  $48,000,000  less  than  he  had  requested  be 
placed  at  his  disposition  by  Congress)  and  Mr. 
Atkinson  calls  these  estimates  "  very  inadequate  " 
when  they  were  really  $48,000,000  more  than  was 
needed. 

In  the  statement  just  made,  Mr.  Atkinson  says 
it  is  probable  that  the  expenditures  will  be  $624,- 
000,000.  Now  what  is  the  fact?  How  near  does 
he  come  this  time?  Take  up  the  report  of  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury  and  what  do  we  find,  bot 
tom  of  p.  vii  ?  "  Total  expenditures,  $488,000,000," 
— that  is,  Mr.  Atkinson  was  $136,000,000  out  of  the 
way.  In  the  succeeding  sentence  (p.  9  of  the  pam 
phlet)  Mr.  Atkinson  says,  "  The  probable  de- 

5* 


ATKINSON'S  RIDICULOUS  FINANCE 

ficiency  of  the  year  would  come  up  to  $190,000,000." 
That  would  shake  the  country  to  its  foundation. 

What  was  the  fact  ?  As  said  a  moment  ago,  Mr. 
Gage  reports  a  surplus  of  $79,000,000  for  that  year, 
so  that  Mr.  Atkinson  was  $269,000,000  out  of  the 
way  of  the  truth.  That  variation  of  $260,000,000 
is  over  55  per  cent,  of  all  the  expenditures  of  the 
United  States  government  for  the  fiscal  year  of  1000. 

In  the  next  sentence,  Mr.  Atkinson  says : 

"  A  deduction  may,  perhaps  be  made  from  this 
sum  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  number  of  volun 
teer  troops  on  which  the  computations  of  the  sec 
retary  of  war  are  based  exceeds  the  number  called 
for  by  the  officers  of  the  army  itself.  We  may 
therefore  possibly  reduce  the  probable  deficit  to  a 
minimum  of  $150,000,000." 

TEat  is,  the  lowest  minimum  he  mentions  is 
$150,000,000.  All  right.  Even  at  that,  as  we  had  a 
surplus  of  $79,000,000  he  is  $229,000,000  out  of  the 
way, — but,  as  we  have  just  found,  he  says  that 
probably  the  deficit  will  be  $190,000,000,  at  the  low 
est  minimum  $150,000,000;  so  that,  giving  him  all 
we  can  by  adopting  the  construction  of  his  state 
ments  which  is  the  more  favorable  to  him,  he  is 
still  $229,000,000  to  the  bad, — enough  to  enable 
us  to  safely  conclude  that  we  are  very  polite  and 

59 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

considerate  to  him  when   we  refrain  from  saying 
anything  worse  of  him  than  that  his  computations 
are  unworthy  of  serious  consideration. 
But  let  us  go  on.     On  p.  10,  he  says : 

"  In  the  matter  of  revenue,  Secretary  Gage  holds 
out  the  expectation  to  secure  $205,000,000  from 
duties  on  sugar,  tobacco,  cigars,  rice  and  tropical 
fruits.  The  decisions  of  the  courts  are,  however, 
continuous  and  final  to  the  effect  that  whenever  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  is  extended  over 
an  area  of  territory,  the  inhabitants  thereof  become 
entitled  to  move  without  let  or  hindrance  throughout 
the  country,  and  subject  to  the  same  laws  for  the 
collection  of  revenues  as  have  been  previously  in 
force  in  the  United  States.  It,  therefore,  follows 
that,  if  the  sovereignty  of  the  Philippine  Islands  and 
Porto  Rico  is  assumed,  their  sugar  and  other  prod 
ucts,  like  those  of  Hawaii  are  entitled  to  free 
entry.  .  .  The  loss  of  revenue,  under  these  con 
ditions,  would  be  approximately  $75,000,000." 

Here  is  where  he  is  willing  to  act  as  secretary 
of  the  treasury  and  as  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,— a  task  that  does  not  seem  too  bur 
densome  for  him.  "The  decisions  of  the  courts 
are  continuous  and  final  to  the  effect,"  he  says,  that 
we  should  lose  $75,000,000  in  the  fiscal  year  of  1900 
from  the  $205,000,000  the  secretary  of  the  treasury 
said  we  should  receive.  You  will  notice  that  Mr. 
Atkinson  is  perfectly  confident  about  what  the  law 

60 


ATKINSON'S  RIDICULOUS  FINANCE 

has  been,  is  and  will  be.  "  The  decisions  of  the 
courts  are,"  he  says,  so  and  so  and  "  it,  therefore, 
follows  "  so  and  so.  There  are  no  reservations. 

Now,  what  is  the  fact?  I  do  not  need  to  tell 
you.  The  decisions  of  the  courts  which  he  says 
were  "  continuous  and  final "  to  the  effect  that  we 
should  lose  $75,000,000  from  customs  because  we 
could  not  keep  tariff  on  sugar,  tobacco,  cigars,  etc., 
etc.,  that  came  in  from  the  Philippines  and  our 
other  island  possessions,  were  not  "  continuous  and 
final,"  to  the  effect  stated  by  him. 

The  United  States  Supreme  Court  has  decided 
this  much  anyway  beyond  peradventure,  namely, 
that  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson  was  wrong,  when  he  said 
that;  and  we  have  been  collecting  our  customs  on 
all  these  commodities  all  the  while  he  said  we  could 
not,  while  we  said  "  perhaps  we  can't,  but  we  shall ;" 
and  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1900,  when  our 
secretary  of  the  treasury  said  we  should  collect  from 
customs  $205,000,000 — and  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson 
said  we  should  take  in  only  $130,000,000 — we  ac 
tually  did  take  in  from  this  source  (p.  vii.,  Secretary 
Gage's  report,  1900;  2d  item,  top  of  page)  $233,- 
000,000;  or  $103,000,000  more  than  Mr.  Atkinson 
tried  to  make  us  fear  we  would  secure,  only. 
61 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 
On  p.  10  (idem)  Mr.  Atkinson  says: 

"  The  only  conclusions  which  can  be  derived  from 
these  official  data  are,  therefore,  as  follows: 

"  Deficit  computed  by  secretary  of  treasury  for 
fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1900,  $30,000,000. 

"  Add  for  the  necessary  increase  in  the  army, 
navy  and  pension  estimates  to  cover  the  expense  of 
military  occupation,  armaments,  fortifications,  re 
newal  of  forces,  increase  of  pensions  and  for  other 
matters  of  positive  necessity  under  such  conditions, 
say,  $85,000,000.  Total  deficit  on  secretary's  com 
puted  revenue,  $115,000,000. 

"  Add  prospective  loss  of  revenue  from  sugar, 
tobacco,  cigars,  rice  and  tropical  fruits,  unless  some 
way  can  be  found  for  evading  what  are  apparently 
the  decisions  of  the  courts  in  this  matter,  $75,000,- 
ooo.  Probable  deficit,  $190,000,000." 

Now  let  us  look  at  his  second  item  in  this  table. 
"  Add  for  the  necessary  increase  in  the  army,  navy, 
and  pension  estimates  to  cover  the  expense  of  mili 
tary  occupation,  armaments,  fortifications,  renewal 
of  forces,  increase  of  pensions  and  for  other  matters 
of  positive  necessity  under  such  conditions,  say, 
$85,000,000."  Now  the  facts  are  that  Mr.  Gage 
estimated  $237,000,000  for  the  war  and  navy  de 
partments  combined  and  $145,000,000  for  pensions, 
or  $382,000,000  in  all.  Mr.  Atkinson  says  that  there 
should  be  $85,000,000  added  to  these,  that  is  that 
62 


ATKINSON'S  RIDICULOUS  FINANCE 

they  should  be  $467,000,000.  Mr.  Gage  reports 
(p.  vii.,  1900  report)  that  he  actually  expended  for 
these  three  items,  $329,000,000.  Mr.  Atkinson's 
estimate  is  $467,000,000,  that  is,  $138,000,000  too 
much. 

"  Probable  deficit  $190,000,000  "  and  on  the  next 
page  he  repeats  the  statement.  This  is  his  third 
statement  to  this  effect  in  the  course  of  three  pages, 
and  we  must  take  it  as  his  best  judgment,  for  he 
repeats  it  more  than  any  other  one  figure;  and,  as 
we  had  a  surplus  of  $79,000,000  instead  of  his  de 
ficit  of  $190,000,000,  he  was,  as  said  before,  $269,- 
000,000  out  of  the  way;  that  is,  his  error  is  equiv 
alent  to  more  than  55  per  cent,  of  our  total  expendi 
ture  for  the  year,  which  was  $488,000,000! 

Is  this  people  to  trust  such  a  man  as  that?  Is 
he  entitled  to  our  support?  Is  he  to  be  taken  even 
seriously  after  having  deliberately  put  out  such 
statements  as  these?  A  man  who  knew  nothing  at 
all  about  the  finance  of  the  country  could  hardly 
have  done  worse,  and  yet  I  have  called  your  atten 
tion  to  only  half  a  dozen  statements.  There  are 
many  more  which  my  limited  space  forbids  men 
tioning  ;  these  I  have  shown  are  only  typical — I  have 
omitted  far  more  than  I  have  mentioned. 

63 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

He  expected  to  frighten  the  people  by  these  state 
ments, — these  wild,  fantastic  traductions  which  he 
calls  deductions.  Let  us  see  what  he  says  on  the 
top  of  p.  12,  after  he  has  set  out  all  these  figures  we 
have  been  going  over: 

"  It  will  be  apparent  to  every  business  man  that 
the  present  favorable  aspect  of  affairs  in  almost 
every  line  of  work  must  be  changed  as  soon  as  it 
becomes  evident  that  from  and  after  May  i,  1899, 
or  thereabout,  the  reserve  cf  the  treasury  will  be 
drawn  upon  at  the  rate  of  $10,000,000  to  $15,000,- 
ooo  per  month  continuously  in  order  to  meet  the 
deficit  disclosed  by  these  facts.  Unless  there  is  an 
extra  session  of  Congress  there  could  be  no  reme 
dial  legislation  in  less  than  about  one  year.  In  that 
year  the  whole  business  of  the  country  will  be  placed 
in  uncertainty  by  the  depletion  of  the  reserve  of  the 
treasury  in  the  absence  of  any  sound  banking  legis 
lation  at  the  present  session  of  Congress." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say,  as  the  treasury  has  al 
ways  run  far  ahead  of  its  expenditures  ever  since 
that  statement  was  made,  that  the  statement  last 
quoted  had  no  foundation  in  fact. 

But  there  are  more  serious  things  in  these  pam 
phlets  than  overestimates.  He  has,  on  his  own 
record,  either  resorted  to  trickery,  so  desperate  was 
he  made  when  the  cold,  actual  receipts  and  expendi 
tures  showed  the  utter  folly  and  foolishness  of  his 

64 


ATKINSON'S  RIDICULOUS  FINANCE 

statements,  or  else,  to  be  charitable,  he  has  been 
guilty  of  the  grossest  and  almost  indefensible  care 
lessness  in  presenting  a  very  serious  matter. 

When  the  real  results  of  the  fiscal  year  of  1900 
had  placed  him  where  he  could  no  longer  be  con 
sidered  as  a  reasonable  man  in  future  figuring  con 
cerning  national  finance,  a  year  later  he  essayed 
to  act  as  a  historian  of  the  subject.  And  right 
here,  he  commits  a  most  serious  offense.  If  it  is 
not  an  error,  he  is  resorting  to  tactics  that  are  un 
known  to  gentlemen.  If  it  is  an  honest  error,  it 
is  most  remarkable,  for  the  same  mistake  occurs 
twice. 

On  p.  ii,  No.  6  of  the  Anti-Imperialist,  the  final 
number,  he  prepares  tables  purporting  to  represent 
the  per  capita  receipts  and  expenditures  during  the 
first  administration  of  President  McKinley.  In  in 
troducing  these  tables,  he  says  (bottom  p.  10,  No. 
6.) 

"  The  subsequent  analysis  gives  the  actual  dis 
bursements  for  three  years  of  the  McKinley  admin 
istration,  with  the  estimates  of  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  and  the  appropriation  made  by  Congress 
for  the  present  fiscal  year." 

In  the  first  table  on  p.  n,  he  has  a  column  headed 

65 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

"revenue  (1901  on  estimate  of  secretary  of  treas-- 
ury)  "  and  another  "  net  expenditures  after  deduct 
ing  postal  receipts."  In  the  first  column,  Mr.  At 
kinson  deliberately  states  that  the  figure  given  for 
the  1901  revenue  is  the  estimate  of  the  secretary  of 
the  treasury,  and  then  proceeds  to  state  that  figure 
as  $560,000,000.  I  have  here  Mr.  Gage's  report  for 
1900  and  on  p.  n,  of  that  report,  he  estimates  that 
the  revenues  of  the  government  for  the  year  1901 
will  be  $580,000,000, — or  $20,000,000  more  than 
what  Mr.  Atkinson  says  the  secretary  said ;  so  that 
here  is  a  deliberate  misstatement  or  inexcusable 
error  by  Mr.  Atkinson. 

In  the  second  column  (p.  n,  Anti-Imperialist, 
No.  6)  he  states  that  the  secretary  of  the  treasury 
estimates  the  expenditures  after  deducting  postal 
expenditures  for  1901  to  be  $605,000,000, — as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  secretary's  estimate  was  $500,- 
000,000;  the  explanation  is  that  Mr.  Atkinson  did 
not  take  out  $107,000,000  of  postal  expenditures 
from  Mr.  Gage's  estimate  when  Mr.  Atkinson  said 
he  did.  Mr.  Gage's  figures  are  as  follows:  (Sec. 
Rep.  1900,  p.  n.) 

"  Fiscal  year  1901.  The  revenues  of  the  govern 
ment  for  the  fiscal  year  are  thus  estimated  upon  the 

66 


ATKINSON'S  RIDICULOUS  FINANCE 

basis  of  existing  laws;  total  estimated  revenues, 
(Postal  receipts  deducted),  $580,000,000;  total  es 
timated  expenditures,  (Postal  expenditures  de 
ducted)  ;  $500,000,000." 

That  is  to  say,  if  the  postal  expenditures  of  $107,- 
000,000  be  added,  Mr.  Gage  reports  a  total  esti 
mated  expenditure  of  $607,000,000  with  the  postal 
expenditure  in.  Mr.  Atkinson's  statement  is  that 
the  secretary  said  $607,000,000  ($605,000,000  ex 
actly),  with  the  postal  expenditures  out. 

The  same  mistake,  if  we  shall  continue  to  so  call 
it,  is  repeated  in  another  table  on  the  same  page; 
and  on  top  of  the  next  page  (idem),  Mr.  Atkinson 
says  something  I  would  rather  not  describe  as  I  be 
lieve  it  to  be.  I  am  unable  to  apply  such  soft 
words  as  mistake,  error,  or  misapprehension  in  this 
instance,  when,  on  the  top  of  p.  12,  No.  6,  Mr.  At 
kinson  says : 

"  In  his  recommendation  contained  in  his  annual 
report,  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  presented  es 
timates  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1901,  of 
$578,081,994.86,  expressing  the  hope  that  Congress 
would  reduce  the  amounts  asked  by  the  several  de 
partments  so  as  to  avoid  an  expected  deficit  of 
$18,000,000." 

I  have  read  the  secretary's  report  from  cover  to 
61 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

cover,  several  times,  in  a  search  for  such  a  state 
ment  by  him,  but  I  am  entirely  unable  to  discover  it. 
The  Secretary  has  made  no  such  statement  or  any 
thing  like  it  in  his  report.  On  the  contrary,  the  re 
port  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  for  the  fiscal 
year,  1900,  on  p.  n,  says:  "  Fiscal  year  1901 — The 
revenues  of  the  government  for  the  current  fiscal 
year  are  thus  estimated  upon  the  basis  of  existing 
laws:  Total  estimated  revenues,  $580,000,000;  total 
estimated  expenditures,  $500,000,000,  or  a  surplus 
of  $80,000,000." 

Mr.  Atkinson,  in  the  face  of  this,  says  that  the 
secretary  says  in  his  report  that  he  expects  a  deficit 
of  $18,000,000  and  he  carefully  repeats  this  state 
ment  on  p.  14, — when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  what  the 
secretary  does  say  is  "  a  surplus  of  $80,000,000," — 
an  error  by  Mr.  Atkinson  of  $98,000,000. 

I  think  these  figures  effectually  dispose  of  the 
Edward  Atkinson  of  these  days  as  a  statistician.  I 
shall  never  trust  another  figure  of  his  until  it  is 
proven.  I  had  expected  to  find  him,  at  least,  a 
gentleman.  Indeed,  I  am  almost  ready  to  join  the 
sentiment  said  to  have  been  expressed  by  a  certain 
elderly  gentleman  in  a  somewhat  famous  reply 
which  he  is  credited  with  having  made  to  Mr.  At- 

68 


ATKINSON'S  RIDICULOUS  FINANCE 

kinson.  The  elderly  party  was  going  home  on  his 
usual  evening  train,  and  was  deep  in  the  delights 
of  his  newspaper  when  Mr.  Atkinson  brushed  in 
and,  all  aglow  with  enthusiasm,  said,  as  he  offered 
his  hand  a  little  effusively  to  the  man  behind  the 

paper,  "  Ah,  good  eveningyMr.  B ,  I'm  delighted 

to  see  you,  delighted.  Have  you  seen  my  last  pam 
phlet  ? "  Evidently  the  interruption  was  not  the 
most  welcome  thing  in  the  world  at  just  that  place 
in  the  daily  love  story,  for,  as  he  took  his  visitor's 
hand,  the  old  gentleman  said,  forcibly  and  with 
much  emphasis,  "  Good  God,  I  hope  so !  "  I  have 
never  heard  of  what  was  said  after  that. 


CHAPTER    VII 

ATKINSON'S  GHASTLY  DEATH 
STATISTICS 

DISEASES  IN  OUR  ARMY  IN   THE  PHILIPPINES 

IT  would  not  be  surprising  if  a  man  who  will 
spend  days  in  tabulating  such  financial  statements 
as  we  have  just  examined  could,  if  he  cannot  carry 
his  point  in  any  other  way,  see  nothing  wrong  in 
frightening  every  mother  in  the  country  who  had  a 
boy  out  there  in  the  Philippines.  For  each  of  those 
boys  we  sent  out  there  was  somebody's  boy, — the 
pride  of  some  gray-haired  woman  whose  sight  was 
growing  dim  with  the  years  and  the  tears  while  she 
waited  and  watched  for  him  to  come  back.  Remem 
ber  that, — that  each  soldier  is  somebody's  boy,  and 
remember  it  while  we  are  considering  what  is  to 
follow. 

I  desire  to  show  you  the  picture  Mr.  Atkinson 
painted  and  thrust  up  into  the  faces  of  those  in  the 
homes  of  these  boys  who  went  to  the  Philippines. 

70 


ATKINSON'S   GHASTLY   DEATH    STATISTICS 

We  who  remember  those  saints  we  called  "  Mother," 
and  can  now  see  them  in  no  other  way,  can  realize 
what  an  awful  thing  such  statements  as  these  would 
have  been  to  her  if  her  boy  had  been  going  out 
there.  We  know  that  such  a  picture  as  Mr.  Atkin 
son  paints  here  would  never  leave  your  mother  or 
mine,  night  or  day,  till  her  boy  came  back, — not  for 
an  instant  would  that  picture  leave  her, — it  would 
lurk  in  the  depths  of  every  cup  and  sicken  her  as 
it  leered  out  of  every  mirror. 

On  p.  9,  of  the  Anti-Imperialist,  No.  2,  Mr.  At 
kinson  says: 

"  There  is  no  estimate  of  the  necessary  expense  of 
raising  every  year  a  new  force  equal  to  about  one- 
third  of  the  entire  force  required  in  order  to  fill  the 
annual  gaps  which  will  be  caused  by  death  and  dis 
ease  (by  service  in  the  Philippines).  By  a  com 
parison  of  all  the  data,  it  becomes  apparent  that 
about  one-third  of  the  white  troops  stationed  in 
tropical  climates  must  be  replaced  year  by  year  by 
fresh  levies  to  make  up  for  death  or  disability." 

On  p.  10  of  the  same  pamphlet,  he  says  further: 

'  There  is  no  sign  or  hint  of  any  pension  being 
granted  to  the  survivors  of  the  Spanish  war  or  for 
the  support  of  the  twenty  per  cent,  at  least,  of  all 
the  troops  sent  out  each  year  to  the  tropics  who  will 
be  brought  back  wholly  or  partly  disabled." 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 
On  p.  22,  same  book : 

"  Only  a  part  of  the  horrors  of  military  control  in 
tropical  climates  have  been  yet  exposed.  .  .  In 
1895  France  took  possession  of  Madagascar.  .  . 
The  following  extracts  from  an  official  report  will 
surely  indicate  the  probable  results  of  our  present 
campaign  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  which  are  much 
nearer  the  equator,  and  where  our  forces  must,  of 
necessity,  be  confined  to  the  most  dangerous  sec 
tion  of  the  malarious  and  pestilential  coast  stations. 
.  .  .  Amongst  the  military  troops  the  general  mor 
tality  was  356  per  1000.  .  .  The  body  Which  was 
the  most  severely  afflicted  was  that  of  the  military 
engineers  which  worked  on  the  construction  of  the 
roads  and  bridges ;  two-thirds  of  them  died.  Then 
comes  with  a  proportion  of  623  per  1000,  the  4Oth 
battalion  of  '  chasseurs  a  pied,'  which  was  worn  out 
by  its  forced  march  on  Tsarasota,  and  of  which  not 
one  man  reached  Tananarive.  .  .  It  was  not  a 
question  of  sickness,  but  of  death ;  the  general  aver 
age  of  deaths  for  the  military  troops  reached  nearly 
40  per  100,  while  in  some  bodies  of  troops  it  was 
over  60  per  100." 

Now  let  us  go  to  Anti-Imperialist  No.  4  on  p.  5 : 

"  It  appears  that  the  executive  officers  of  the 
government  .  .  .  are  now  afraid  to  have  the 
ghastly  facts  of  the  conditions  in  Manila  become 
known  to  the  public  at  home,  lest  men  should  be 
prevented  from  enlisting ;  or,  what  is  practically  the 
true  term,  be  warned  against  committing  gradual 
suicide  by  military  service  in  the  tropics." 

72 


ATKINSON'S   GHASTLY   DEATH    STATISTICS 
Now  let  us  look  at  No.  6,  p.  15 : 

"  The  weakened  and  disabled  volunteers  and 
regulars  returned  from  Manila  will  be  scattered 
about  the  country  or  in  hospitals  recovering  from 
the  ghastly  conditions  of  two  years'  service  in  the 
malarial  swamps  of  the  Philippines,  many  thousand 
of  the  original  number  having  been  killed  in  battle 
or  having  died  from  disease." 

Now  I  want  to  go  back  to  No.  2,  p.  23 : 

"  By  the  rule  of  proportion,  without  making  any 
allowance  for  the  hotter  and  more  pestilential  con 
ditions  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  the  death-rate  in 
our  forces  in  the  Philippines  will  be  one-third ;  prob 
ably  a  greater  number  will  be  sent  home  invalided, 
.  .  .  (that  is,  two-thirds  dead  and  sent  home). 
Many  self-sacrificing  men  might  enlist  on  the  cer 
tainty  of  death  or  disability  within  two  years,  but 
will,  of  course,  be  married  before  leaving  for  Ma 
nila,  in  order  to  be  assured  of  adequate  pensions  for 
their  widows  and  children." 

On  p.  44,  same  number,  are  these  statements  that 
cap  them  all: 

"  Will  not  the  mothers  of  the  land  regret  the  loss 
of  their  sons,  now  on  the  way  to  or  now  in  Manila, 
only  beginning  to  be  exposed  to  worse  dangers  than 
resistance  of  the  Filipinos  under  the  ghastly  condi 
tions  of  the  worst  of  tropical  climates  in  the  rainy 
season?  In  an  aggressive  campaign  away  from  the 
sea  we  may  fear  that  of  the  25,000  men  who  have 

73 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

been  dispatched  to  Manila,  if  kept  there  three  or 
four  months  longer,  not  one-half  will  ever  see  their 
native  land  again;  we  may  fear  that  nearly  all  of 
the  other  half  who  may  return  will  come  back  im 
paired  in  health  and  strength.  The  evidence  of 
these  dangers  is  conclusive.  The  facts  disclosed  by 
the  records  of  the  British,  French  and  Dutch  armies 
almost  prove  that  such  will  be  the  fate  we  are  bring 
ing  upon  the  children  of  Americans.  .  . 

"If  the  regular  army  of  the  United  States  is  sta 
tioned  in  the  Philippine  Islands  .  .  .  and  kept 
there  six  months,  it  is  practically  certain  that  after 
that  term  has  elapsed  there  will  be  no  regular  army 
of  the  United  States  in  existence,  capable  of  any 
effectual  service  even  on  the  part  of  the  survivors." 

Now  there  is  the  picture!  Again  I  say,  what  a 
picture  for  an  American  man  to  thrust  up  into  the 
faces  of  the  mothers  of  the  100,000  boys  we  sent 
out  there ! 

First  let  us  look  at  the  1899  report  of  the  surgeon 
general  of  the  army,  p.  237: 

"  The  admission  and  death  rates  in  the  Philip 
pines, — 2,070.62  and  22.74,  respectively,  did  not 
differ  much  from  those  in  the  United  States, 
2,043.01  and  20.14." 

That  is,  of  every  1000  men  in  the  United  States 
army  who  remained  in  this  country  in  the  year  1898, 
there  were  2043  admissions  to  the  sick  report,  or 

74 


ATKINSON'S   GHASTLY   DEATH    STATISTICS 

to  put  it  another  way, — every  man  was  entered  on 
the  sick  report  about  twice  a  year.  In  the  Philip 
pines  for  the  same  time,  of  every  1000  men  there 
were  2070  admissions,  or  just  27  more  eseick  in  the 
Philippines  than  in  the  United  States  for  the  same 
time. 

And  as  to  the  deaths.  In  1898,  there  were  20 
men  who  died  in  every  1000  in  the  army  in  this 
country  and  22  men  in  every  1000  in  the  Philippines, 
— that  is,  2  per  cent,  per  1000  of  our  men  who 
stayed  in  the  United  States  died  in  '98  and  2.2  per 
cent  of  our  men  in  the  Philippines,  (Ibid.,  p.  237) 
— the  total  deaths  from  all  causes  in  the  Philippines, 
numbering  239  souls.  Where  are  the  horrors  and 
the  ghastly  facts  about  which  Mr.  Atkinson  was  de 
claiming?  In  1898  service  in  the  army  was  just 
as  dangerous  in  the  United  States  as  it  was  in  the 
Philippines, — these  facts  show  that. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  1900  report  of  the  Surgeon 
General,  at  p.  350 : 


The  mean  strength  of  the  army  in  the  Philip 
pines  was  for  the  year  1899,  39,280. 

"Deaths  from  all  causes  for  the  year,  1201." 
"  Deaths   from   all   causes   for   each    1000   men, 
30.58." 

75 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

That  is,  in  the  year  from  January  i,  1899,  we 
lost  in  the  Philippines  3.5  per  cent,  of  our  men  per 
1000  by  death  for  all  causes.  How  this  magnifi 
cent  record  must  sadden  Mr.  Atkinson!  He  said, 
you  will  recall  that  "  not  one^-half  "  of  all  the  sol 
diers  we  sent  over  to  the  Philippines  "  will  ever  see 
their  native  land  again !  "  How  does  this  compare 
with  a  death  rate  of  35/2  per  cent,  per  1000?  He 
is  only  47  per  cent,  out  of  the  way. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  1901  report  of  the  Sur 
geon  General  and  see  how  things  stood  from  Jan 
uary  i,  1900,  to  January  i,  1901 :  (p.  318.) 

"  Average  number  of  men  in  Philippines, 
66,882." 

"  Total  deaths  from  all  causes,  1923,  or  2.8  per 
cent,  of  each  1000  men." 

On  p.  130  is  the  report  of  the  Chief  Surgeon  of 
the  Division  of  the  Philippines, 

"  REPORT  OF      ...    CHIEF  SURGEON   OF  THE   PHILIP 
PINES. 

"  Manila,  P.  I.,  May  31,  1901. 

"  I  have  the  honor,  prior  to  my  departure  for  the 

United  States,  to  submit  a  report  of  the  operations 

of  the  medical  department  in  the  Division  of  the 

Philippines  for  the  period  ending  May  31,   1901; 


ATKINSON'S   GHASTLY   DEATH   STATISTICS 


"  The  health  of  the  troops  continues  to  be  good, 
and  the  ratio  of  non-effectives  to  the  whole  strength 
has  still  further  diminished.  The  average  for  the 
7  months  covered  by  my  last  report  was  8.84  per 
cent.;  for  nine  months  ending  March  31,  the  aver 
age  is  7.52  per  cent." :  (an  average  of  8.18  per  cent, 
for  1 6  months). 

An  average  of  8.18  per  cent.,  only,  not  able  to  re 
spond  to  roll  call, — 8  men,  only,  out  of  each  100 
all  through  the  army  in  the  Philippines  during  the 
1 6  months  between  Nov.  30,  1899,  and  April  i, 
1901,  with  66,000  men  in  the  field!  While  a  still 
later  report,  p.  128,  states : 

"  From  the  close  of  the  calendar  year  1900  to  the 
latest  reports  the  health  of  the  troops  in  the  Philip 
pines  has  been  steadily  improving.  The  Chief  Sur 
geon  has  reported  a  progressive  diminution  in  the 
non-efficiency  of  the  command  from  disease  and  in 
jury.  In  July  and  August,  1900,  the  non-efficiency 
constituted  9.47  and,  9.58  per  cent,  of  the  strength. 
From  January  to  June,  1901,  the  non-efficiency  was 
less  than  7  per  cent.,  the  lowest  rate  6.12  per  cent, 
having  been  recorded  in  March." 

That  shows  the  conditions  up  to  June  I,  1901 — 
less  than  7  per  cent,  of  the  men  too  ill  to  report  for 
duty  from  any  cause  whatever ! 

77 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

On  May  8,  1902,  the  Assistant-Surgeon  General, 
U.  S.  A.,  forwarded  to  me  a  letter  in  which  he  says : 

'  The  latest  information  from  the  Chief  Surgeon 
of  the  division  of  the  Philippines  is  to  the  effect 
that  during  the  month  ending  March  15,  1902,  there 
were  6.45  per  cent,  of  the  command  on  sick  report 
for  disease  and  injury  " — and  in  the  advance  sheets 
of  the  1902  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  fol 
lowing  appears,  pp.  5-6 : 

'  The  health  of  the  army  has  shown  continued  im 
provement.  .  .  This  large  reduction  of  death 
roll  was  in  a  great  measure  due  to  improved  con 
ditions  in  the  Philippines,  where  the  rate  was  re 
duced  to  17.96  per  thousand  in  the  year  1901,  as 
against  29.42  per  thousand  in  the  year  1900.* 

.  .  .  The  rates  of  admission  to  sick  report  for 
disease  and  injury  and  the  rate  of  discharge  for  dis 
ability  during  the  calendar  year  1901  agree  with 
the  reduced  mortality  rate  in  being  considerably  less 
than  the  corresponding  rates  for  the  year  1900. 

"  A  further  improvement  of  health  in  the  Philip 
pines  may  be  anticipated  from  the  cessation  of 
guerrilla  warfare  with  the  exposure  incident  to  it, 
and  from  the  concentration  of  the  troops  remaining 
in  the  islands  in  a  smaller  number  of  posts  selected 
and  constructed  with  special  reference  to  sanitary 
conditions." 

Now  just  to  drive  the  nail  home  hard,  I  want  to 
repeat  one  of  Mr.  Atkinson's  statements  He  says, 

*The  Secretary's  figure  for  1900  is,  obviously,  an  error — 28.75 
is  the  figure  given  for  1900  in  the  1901  report. 

78 


ATKINSON'S   GHASTLY    DEATH    STATISTICS 

you  will  recall,  "  if  the  regular  army  of  the  United 
States  is  stationed  in  the  Philippine  islands  and 
kept  there  six  months,  it  is  practically  certain  that, 
after  that  time  has  elapsed,  there  will  be  no  regular 
army  of  the  United  States  in  existence  capable  of 
any  effectual  service  even  on  the  part  of  the  sur 
vivors."  Over  three  and  one-half  years  have  gone 
by  since  he  said  that  during  all  of  which  time  we 
have  had  some  60,000  troops  there,  until  the  fall  of 
1901,  when  we  commenced  to  bring  them  back, 
so  that  they  were  there  not  only  his  six  months  but 
four  times  that.  His  statement  means,  if  anything, 
that  our  army  would  be  wiped  out  entirely. 

The  1902  Report  of  the  Surgeon  General,  p.  149, 
shows  that,  in  1901,  we  lost  1069  men  in  the  Philip 
pines  and  China.  This  last  report  enables  us  to 
give  the  record  of  the  entire  four  years  of  the 
Philippine  war,  as  it  officially  ended  July  4,  1902, 
when  military  rule  was  abandoned  and  superseded 
by  that  of  the  civil  arm. 

The  death  rate  in  the  army  in  the  Philippines  in 
'98  was  22.74,  30.58  in  '99,  28.75  in  1900  and  17.96 
in  1891— an  average  of  25,  and  a  total  of  4432 
lives,  an  average  of  1108  for  the  entire  four 
years. 

79 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

Now  what  does  a  death  rate  of  25  mean?  Let 
us  look  at  that  a  moment.  A  hasty  glance  at  some 
representative  cities  of  our  own  country  will  be  of 
service.  In  Burlington,  Vt,  in  1900  the  death  rate 
was  1 8  per  1000.  That  is  only  seven  less  per  thou 
sand  than  we  lost  from  all  causes  in  the  Philippine 
army,  in  a  tropical  climate,  for  over  four  years, 
more  than  8000  miles  from  home  and  in  a  war  with 
Filipinos  and  Anti-Imperialists ! 

The  death  rate  in  the  year  1900  in  Augusta, 
Me.,  was  over  26,  one  more  than  our  Philippine  rate 
of  25,  while  the  rate  throughout  the  southern  part 
of  our  own  country  appears  to  average  much  higher 
than  the  rate  in  our  army  in  the  Philippines;  for 
example,  here  are  some  1900  rates  (1900  United 
States  Census).  New  Orleans,  28;  Natchez,  39; 
Raleigh  27.2;  Charleston,  37.5;  Richmond,  29.7; 
Leadville,  Col.,  28.7;  Shreveport,  La.,  45.5;  Key 
West,  28.4;  Petersburg,  Va.,  31.1 ;  Lynchburg,  Va., 
27.7.  These  are  only  typical.  I  could  name  dozens 
of  others. 

The  Union  troops  in  the  Rebellion  had  worse 
things  than  this  to  face  in  their  war.  On  p.  238  of 
the  1899  report  of  the  Surgeon  General  of  the 
United  States  Army,  is  a  table  comparing,  month 

80 


ATKINSON'S   GHASTLY   DEATH    STATISTICS 

to  month,  the  admissions  and  deaths  from  disease 
in  the  first  six  months  of  the  Rebellion  and  a  like 
period  of  the  Spanish  War.  Under  the  table  are 
these  remarks  of  the  Surgeon  General : 

"  That  the  prevalence  and  fatality  of  disease 
was  greater  during  the  civil  war  than  in  the  reg 
ular  army  during  the  past  year  is  evident  from  this 
tabulation.  The  highest  monthly  rate  of  admission 
during  the  civil  war  was  363.66,  furnished  by 
August,  1 86 1 ;  the  highest  rate  during  the  past  year 
was  271.79,  calculated  from  the  admissions  in  Sep 
tember.  The  mean  monthly  rate  during  the  eight 
months  tabulated  was  287.98  in  1861,  while  in 
1898  the  mean  rate  was  only  185.98.  It  may 
be  observed,  also,  that  the  maximum  rate  of 
last  year  was  not  so  large  as  the  mean  rate  of  the 
eight  months  of  the  civil  war,  and  further,  that  the 
mean  monthly  rate  of  the  5  years  of  the  civil  war 
June  30,  1 86 1,  to  June  30,  1866,  was  higher  than 
the  mean  rate  of  the  regular  army  during  the  eight 
months  which  included  its  disastrous  experience 
with  the  climatic  and  febrile  diseases  of  the  West 
Indies.  The  civil  war  rate  referred  to  was  197  per 
1000  men;  the  Spanish- American  war  rate,  as  tab 
ulated  above,  185.91." 

The  average     of    admissions  for  the  first  eight 

months  of  the  civil  war,  if  carried  out  for  a  year, 

is  3455  sick  men  reporting  from  each   1000  men. 

That  is  a  sick  rate  of  more  than  800  higher  than 

81 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

the  worst  yearly  report  we  have  yet  had  from 
the  Philippines, — or,  to  put  it  another  way, 
there  would  be  four  men  ill  in  the  first  year  of  the 
Civil  War  to  three  in  the  Philippines  in  the  Spanish 
War. 


82 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  VENEREAL  DISEASE  LIBEL 

VENEREAL    DISEASES 

BUT,  not  content  with  attempting  to  frighten  the 
parents  and  friends  of  those  boys  out  there  with 
false  prophecies,  Mr.  Atkinson  had  to  horrify  and 
shame  every  woman  they  knew,  had  to  thrust  be 
fore  the  loving  eyes  of  the  mothers,  sisters  and 
sweethearts  of  the  100,000  men  we  sent  out  there, 
prophecies  that  they  can  probably  never  forgive. 
We  can  spend  but  a  moment  in  going  over  this, 
but  it  seems  so  scandalous,  so  libelous,  so  wanting 
in  common  decency  that  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  let 
it  altogether  pass. 

First  I  shall  take  the  No.  2  of  the  Anti-Imperialist 
and  turn  to  p.  18  : 

"  The  greatest  and  most  unavoidable  danger  to 
which  these  forces  will  be  exposed  will  neither  be 
fevers  nor  malaria;  it  will  be  venereal  diseases  in 
their  worst  and  most  malignant  form.  It  is  this 
which  has  reduced  the  population  of  Hawaii  to  a  de- 

83 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

generated  remnant,  4  per  cent,  of  whom  are  isolated 
under  sentence  of  death  from  leprosy;  a  disease  of 
a  similar  type,  perhaps  not  from  the  same  cause, 
which  gives  evidence  of  the  utter  degeneracy  of 
these  poor  people." 

On  p.  21,  Vol.  II  we  read : 

"  About  13,000  soldiers  return  to  England  from 
India  every  year,  and  of  these,  in  1894,  over  60  per 
cent,  had  suffered  some  form  of  venereal  disease. 
These  figures  are  quoted  as  showing  more  forcibly 
than  words  can,  the  risk  of  contamination,  not  only 
to  the  present  population  of  this  country,  but  also 
to  its  future  generations.  Of  these  men  a  number 
die,  or  remaining  invalids  are  more  or  less  incapaci 
tated  from  earning  their  own  livelihood,  and  thus 
become  a  burden  on  the  rates." 

Now  here  are  some  of  his  statistics — are  two 
pages  of  them  (Anti-Imp.,  vol.  2,  pp.  24-5)  which 
Mr.  Atkinson  says  were  taken  from  the  parliamen 
tary  blue  book,  1896,  showing  the  venereal  diseases 
in  1896  in  the  British  army : 

"  Admissions  to  hospital  per  1000  men  in  service : 
In  India,  as  a  whole,  in  1896,  522.3;  In  Rohilk- 
hand,  711.8;  In  Jhansi,  859.9;  (nearly  nine  men  out 
of  10.)  In  Newgong,  1013.5  (every  man)." 

And  then  on  p.  20  of  the  same  number  of  the 
Anti-Imperialist  (No.  2)  Mr.  Atkinson  quotes  the 

84 


THE  VENEREAL  DISEASE  LIBEL 

following  from  the  parliamentary  report,  East  India 
(contagious  diseases)  No.  I  and  No.  3  (1897).  It 
is  a  picture  of  what  a  committee  of  the  English 
parliament  saw  among  some  English  troops,  and 
Edward  Atkinson,  out  of  kindness  to  the  mothers 
of  our  boys  in  the  Philippines,  quotes  it  here  as 
showing  what  they  must  expect  to  see  when  their 
boys  come  home.  As  I  read  it  I  want  you  to  re 
member  if  you  have  seen  any  of  our  returning 
soldiers  whom  it  would  describe. 

Vol.  II,  p.  20: 

"  Before  reaching  the  age  of  twenty-five  years, 
these  young  men  have  come  home  presenting  a 
most  shocking  appearance ;  some  lay  there  having 
obviously  but  a  short  time  to  live;  others  were  un 
recognizable  from  disfigurement  by  reason  of  the 
destruction  of  their  features,  or  had  lost  their 
palates,  their  eyesight,  or  their  sense  of  hearing; 
others  again  were  in  a  state  of  extreme  emaciation, 
their  joints  distorted  and  diseased.  Not  a  few  are 
time-expired,  but  cannot  be  discharged  in  their  pr^s- 
ent  condition,  incapacitated  as  they  are  to  earn  their 
livelihood,  and  in  a  condition  so  repulsive  that  they 
could  not  mix  with  their  fellowmen.  Their  friends 
and  relatives  refuse  to  receive  them  and  it  is  inex 
pedient  to  discharge  them  only  to  seek  the  asylum 
of  the  poorhouse ;  so  they  remain  at  Netley  in  in 
creasing  numbers  which,  as  matters  now  are,  seem 
likely  to  continue  to  increase." 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

What  a  picture  that  is  to  thrust  in  the  faces  of  the 
parents  of  our  boys !  Now,  what  are  the  facts 
about  this  matter?  In  a  word,  they  are  as  fol 
lows: 

In  the  year  1898,  it  was  unnecessary  to  discharge 
a  single  soldier  in  the  Philippines  for  these  troubles 
— not  one,  from  a  force  whose  mean  strength  was 
2903  (Vide  1899  Rep.  Surg.  Gen.,  U.  S.  A.,  p.  335), 
and,  taking  our  army  as  a  whole  during  1898,  it  is 
found  that  the  admission  rate  to  sick  report  for 
these  diseases  was  only  3  (three) men  higher  in  each 
1000  than  it  was  in  our  army  during  the  ten  years 
from  1887  to  1898 — and  in  those  ten  years  we  had 
five  men  constantly  ill  of  these  troubles  to  less  than 
four  in  1898. 

In  1899  we  had  to  discharge  only  50  men  out  of 
the  39,000  in  the  Philippines  for  this  trouble, — 
one  man  in  780 ;  and  in  1900  only  47  out  of  an  aver 
age  army  of  66,882  men — one  man  in  1423  ! — show 
ing  an  improvement  in  the  Philippines  of  nearly  100 
per  cent,  over  the  year  1899;  while  from  as  much  of 
our  army  as  never  left  the  United  States  at  all  in 
that  year  (1899),  we  discharged  over  3.5  men  to 
the  looo ;  that  is,  in  1899,  we  had  to  discharge  more 
than  three  men  suffering  from  these  diseases  from 

86 


THE  VENEREAL  DISEASE  LIBEL 

the  army  serving  in  the  United  States  to  one  man 
from  the  army  serving  in  the  Philippines ! 

In  1900,  in  the  Philippines  we  had  to  discharge, 
for  these  troubles,  47  men  out  of  an  average  army  of 
66,882  men — one  in  about  1400 — while  in  the  United 
States  we  had  to 'discharge  151  men  out  of  a  force 
less  than  one-third  as  great  as  the  force  in  the  Philip 
pines  ;  which  means  that,  in  1900,  we  had  to  dis 
charge  more  than  ten  men  to  every  1400  in  our  army 
at  home  while,  in  the  army  in  the  Philippines  we 
had  to  discharge  only  one  in  the  same  number ;  and 
our  rate  of  discharge  for  these  disorders  in  the 
United  States  is  the  lowest,  I  am  informed,  of  all 
the  armies  of  the  world  and  has  been  so  for  many 
years.  (Vide  1900  Rpt.  Surg.  Gen.,  pp.  384  and 
387,— also  1901  Rpt,  idem,  pp.  334  and  340.) 

The  above  is  an  indication  of  our  showing  in  the 
Philippines  for  the  first  three  years  of  our  campaign 
there.  At  no  time  within  those  three  years  were 
these  diseases  the  "  greatest  "  danger  which  our  sol 
diers  had  to  face.  As  illustrative  of  the  average 
prevalence  of  these  disorders,  attention  is  directed 
to  page  131  of  the  1901  Surg.  Gen.  Rep.,  which 
shows  that,  according  to  the  latest  information  con 
tained  therein,  there  was,  from  June,  1900,  to  April, 

87 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

1901,  out  of  every  seven  men  on  sick  report  in  the 
Philippines,  one  man,  on  the  average,  who  suffered 
from  venereal  disease,— so  that  this  danger  to  the 
soldiers— the  danger  which  Mr.  Atkinson  says  is 
the  "greatest"— was,  for  the  last  nine  months 
given  in  the  1901  report,  just  one-seventh  as  preva 
lent  as  other  diseases. 

Since  the  making  up  of  the  1901  report,  we,  at 
times,  have  fallen  off  in  this  excellent  showing  a 
little,  but  not  to  any  degree  that  warrants  the  ap 
plication  of  any  such  statistics  or  pictures  as  Mr. 
Atkinson  gives.  The  most  unfavorable  exhibit  our 
army  appears  to  have  made  in  the  Philippines,  as 
a  whole,  in  these  matters  is  in  the  letter  to  me  of 
May  8,  1892,  from  the  Asst.  Surgeon  General,  from 
which  quotation  was  made  in  the  preceding  chapter. 
That  letter  states  as  follows: 

'''  Twenty-one  per  cent,  of  all  the  totality  of  dis 
ease  and  injury  (in  the  Philippines)  for  March, 
1902,  consisted  of  venereal  cases, — i.  e.,  21  per  cent, 
of  6.45  per  cent,  (the  total  sick  rate  for  March)  or 
1.35  per  cent,  or  13.5  (men  afflicted  with)  venereal 
(diseases)  per  1000  of  strength." 

Thirteen  men  to  the  1000  afflicted  in  this  way, — 
about  one  man  in  100,— less  than  il/2  per  cent.! 

88 


THE  VENEREAL  DISEASE  LIBEL 

13  men  to  the  1000 !  Something  of  a  contrast  to  the 
English  rate  which  Mr.  Atkinson  so  gleefully 
quotes,  of  43  for  each  1000  men  in  India  in  1896! 
The  1902  report  of  the  Surgeon  General,  which  is 
just  at  hand,  shows  that,  for  the  calendar  year  1901, 
the  rate  of  admission  to  sick  report  for  these  dis 
eases  in  our  own  army  at  home  was  five  higher  than 
the  corresponding  rate  in  the  Philippines — and  we 
had  to  discharge  only  26  men  in  the  Phil 
ippines  for  these  diseases  out  of  an  army  of  a  mean 
strength  of  59,526  men ;  while  in  the  United  States, 
here  at  home,  we  discharged  118  men  out  of  a  mean 
army  of  26,515 — that  is,  here  among  our  troops 
stationed  at  home,  we  had  to  discharge  for  disability 
owing  to  these  diseases  4.42  men  in  each  1000,  and 
only  .44  of  a  man  to  the  1000  in  the  Philippines 
— and,  to  sum  it  all  up  so  that  we  may  grasp  the 
general  result  quickly,  comprehensively,  and  con 
clusively,  I  add  that  the  Surgeon  General's  reports 
show  that,  in  the  four  years  of  the  Philippine  strug 
gle,  the  average  annual  rate  of  admission  to  sick  re 
port  for  these  diseases  in  our  army  in  the  Philippines 
has  been  4  (four)  men  per  thousand  less  than  the 
average  annual  rate  of  admissions  during  the  same 
period  for  the  same  diseases  in  our  army  here  at 

89 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

home!  So  that  Mr.  Atkinson's  labored  delusions 
fall  to  the  ground  of  their  own  weight. 

Let  us  hope  Mr.  Atkinson  will  learn  that  statis 
tics  of  the  English  army  in  India  do  not  apply  to 
our  American  army  in  the  Philippines! 

I  think  these  facts  prove  that  Mr.  Atkinson  has 
overdrawn  his  picture,  and  that  it  was  without 
reasonable  excuse.  He  can  find  here  and  there 
statements  of  individual  officers  and  men  to  comfort 
him  a  little,  and  statements  from  isolated  posts  that 
will  please  him,  but  nothing  can  disturb  the  general 
results  that  are  established  and  the  figures  I  have 
just  given.  As  Mr.  Atkinson  was  only  prophesying 
and  comparing,  it  cannot  be  proven  that  he  mis 
stated, — but  it  is  asserted  that  his  comparisons  were 
unfair,  uncalled  for,  unwarranted,  exaggerated  and 
distorted,  and  so  much  so,  that,  considering  the  deli 
cacy  of  the  subject  and  the  pride  and  anxiety  of  the 
families  of  these  boys  for  their  soldier  sons,  Mr. 
Atkinson  has  shown  a  marked  lack  of  good  taste,  of 
gentlemanly  conduct  and  of  decent  respect  for  the 
soldier. 

Before  leaving  this  branch  of  our  discussion,  I 
would  like  to  ask  Mr.  Atkinson  for  any  statistics  he 
may  be  able  to  furnish  of  the  prevalence  of  these  dis- 

90 


THE  VENEREAL  DISEASE  LIBEL 

eases  among  men,  without  excepting  anybody  at 
all,  engaged  in  Mr.  Atkinson's  business,  that  of  fire 
insurance — if  I  may  so  ask  without  prying  too  far 
into  his  personal  affairs.  But,  as  he  has  seen  fit  to 
impute  to  the  soldiers  with  so  free  a  hand,  it  would 
seem  only  fair  for  me,  in  their  behalf,  to  ask  for  any 
testimony  Mr.  Atkinson  is  willing  to  furnish. 


CHAPTER    IX 

ANTI-IMPERIALISM  COST  LIVES 

HOW     ANTI-IMPERIALISM     COST     THE     LIVES     OF 
AMERICAN     SOLDIERS 

BUT  there  was  a  dangerous  side  to  the  work  of 
these  Anti-Imperialists.  Their  work  cost  the  lives 
of  American  soldiers.  There  is  no  reasonable  doubt 
about  that.  Their  work  cost  the  lives  of  hundreds 
of  American  soldiers,— stabbed  in  the  back  as  they 
stood  out  there  on  the  firing  line,  by  their  own  coun 
trymen. 

Soldiers  were  encouraged  and  urged  to  desert  by 
the  Anti-Imperialists ;  and  it  meant  death  to  a  sol 
dier  to  desert  in  time  of  war.  Letters  went  from 
this  country  to  the  leaders  of  the  enemy  urging  them 
to  hold  out  a  little  longer,— that  is,  to  keep  on  shoot 
ing  down  our  soldiers;  for  that's  what  urging  an 
enemy  to  keep  on  a  little  longer  means,  if  it  means 
anything.  "  Keep  on  shooting  down  our  men  and 
if  you  can  only  shoot  enough  of  them,  the  people  of 

92 


ANTI-IMPERIALISM  COST  LIVES 

the  United  States  will  withdraw  their  troops,  and 
then  you  can  put  Aguinaldo  in  power !  "  That, 
the  Anti-Imperialists  told  you,  would  give  the  Fili 
pinos  their  freedom. 

The  Philippine  Commission  told  Mr.  McKinley 
that  if  Aguinaldo  were  put  in  power  and  we  with 
drew  our  troops,  it  would  be  nothing  but  anarchy  in 
those  islands.  The  men  who  reported  that  were 
Mr.  Schurman,  Mr.  Denby,  Admiral  Dewey,  Gen 
eral  Otis  and  Professor  Worcester.  They  all 
spent  many  months  there.  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson, 
who  runs  a  fire  insurance  business  in  Boston  and 
turns  out  such  statistics  as  we  have  examined  in 
these  pages,  says  in  effect,  that  the  men  on  this  com 
mission  do  not  know  what  they  are  talking  about! 

All  up  and  down  this  great  country  the  Anti- 
Imperialists  made  speeches  of  sympathy  for  the  men 
who  were  shooting  at  our  own  soldiers.  It  is  said 
that  money  was  collected  here  and  dispatched  to  that 
enemy,  and  I  am  informed,  and  I  believe  it  is  true, 
much,  if  not  substantially  all  of  such  funds  were 
employed  to  buy  guns,  powder  and  bullets  to  be 
turned  against  American  soldiers.  These  people 
sent  their  speeches  of  encouragement  and  good 
cheer  to  that  enemy  and  these  documents  were  pla- 

93 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

carded  and  distributed  all  over  the  Philippines  to  en 
courage  the  mob  in  Aguinaldo's  army  to  keep  up 
the  fight  a  little  longer,  as  their  Anti-Imperialist 
allies  in  the  United  States  were  becoming  stronger 
every  day  and  it  was  represented  to  the  Filipinos 
that  if  they  could  only  keep  up  the  fight  long  enough 
their  cause  would  be  triumphant,  as  the  United 
States  would  eventually  have  an  Anti-Imperialist 
President.  Can  one  hardly  imagine  anything  that 
would  have  stiffened  up  an  enemy  more  than  to  re 
ceive  just  such  news  as  that? 

There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  but  that  the  in 
surrection  would  have  been  over  long  before  it  was 
if  it  had  not  been  for  just  this  sort  of  aid, — this 
"  blow  from  behind."  I  believe  this  can  be  demon 
strated. 


DOCUMENTS  CAPTURED  BY  FUNSTON  SHOWING  ANTI- 
IMPERIALIST   AID   TO    AGUINALDO 

Among  a  mass  of  material  bearing  upon  this  point 
which  I  have  collected  for  several  years  there  are 
some  statements  to  which  attention  is  asked.  I  de 
sire  to  exhibit  to  you  some  of  the  evidence  itself. 
The  documents  from  which  quotations  are  made  are 

94 


ANTI-IMPERIALISM  COST  LIVES 

papers  which,  for  the  most  part,  I  am  informed,  are 
now  on  file  in  the  War  Department  in  Washington. 
I  believe  the  most  of  them  were  captured  by  General 
Funston  when  he  discovered  the  hiding  place  of 
Aguinaldo's  private  papers.  Here  are  the  transla 
tions.  You  can  here  see  positively  whether  the  hos 
tile  Filipinos  were  encouraged  or  not  by  their  Anti- 
Imperialist  allies  and  partners  in  the  United  States. 
In  October,  1899,  Aguinaldo  published  a  signed 
manifesto  in  La  Independence,  the  insurgent  organ 
of  Manila,  in  which  he  said: 

"  We  ask  God  that  He  may  grant  the  triumph  of 
the  Democratic  party  in  the  United  States,  which  is 
the  party  which  defends  the  Philippines,  and  that 
Imperialism  may  cease  from  its  mad  idea  of  sub 
duing  us  with  its  arms." 

How  delighted  the  Anti-Imperialists  must  have 
been  to  have  learned  of  this !  How  they  must  have 
glowed  with  pride!  The  prayer  should  have  been 
changed  so  that  it  would  read  this  way: 

"  We  ask  God  that  He  may  grant  the  triumph  of 
the  Anti-Imperialist  party  in  the  United  States, 
which  is  the  party  which  defends  the  Philippines  and 
which  is  doing  all  it  can  to  aid  us  who  are  at  war 
with  their  country." 

95 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

The  next  is  an  order  that  was,  apparently,  widely 
distributed : 

"In  the  United  States  meetings  and  banquets  have 
been  held  in  honor  of  our  honorable  President,  Don 
Emilio  Aguinaldo,  who  was  proclaimed  by  Mr. 
Bryan,  the  future  President  of  the  United  States, 
as^pne  of  the  heroes  of  the  world. 

"The  Masonic  society,  interpreting  the  unanimous 
desire  of  the  people,  together  with  the  Government, 
organizes  a  meeting  and  popular  assembly  in  this 
capital  in  favor  of  the  national  independence,  which 
will  take  place  on  Sunday  the  29th,  in  honor  of  Mr. 
Bryan  and  the  Anti-Imperialist  party  which  defends 
our  cause  in  the  United  States. 

"  All  the  Masons  and  all  the  Filipino  people  are 
called  to  take  part  in  this  solemn  act.  The  meeting 
will  be  composed  of  three  parts :  First.  At  eight 
in  the  morning  on  the  29th,  a  gathering  in  an  appro 
priate  place  will  take  place,  which  will  begin  by 
singing  the  national  hymn;  then  appropriate 
speeches  will  be  read.  Second.  At  midday  a  ban 
quet  will  take  place  in  the  palace  in  honor  of  Mr 
Bryan,  who  will  be  represented  by  American  prison 
ers.  Third.  At  four  in  the  afternoon  a  popular 
manifestation  will  take  place  everywhere — the  peo 
ple  will  decorate  and  illuminate  their  houses,  bands 
of  music  will  pass  through  the  streets. 

[SEAL]        "  THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  INTERIOR. 

TARLAC,  October  27,  1899. 

'  To  all  the  provincial,  local  and  military  com 
manders  in  this  capital,  Nuncia  Capas,  Bangbang, 
Gerona,  Panique,  and  Victoria,  the  president  of  the 

96 


ANTI-IMPERIALISM  COST  LIVES 

audiencia  of  Bavambang  and  the  editor  of  La  In- 
dependencia." 

How  would  a  Northern  man  have  felt  to  have 
been  banqueted,  wined  and  dined  by  Jefferson 
Davis  and  his  Cabinet  in  1863?  This  is  about  a 
parallel  case.  These  enemies  of  ours  who  were  ac 
tually  at  war  with  us  were  giving  banquets  to  some 
of  our  own  people  and  celebrating  the  occasion  with 
bands,  illuminations  and  decorations! 

Here  is  something  more  of  a  similar  nature.  It 
is  the  translation  of  another  poster  that  was  put  up 
all  over  the  city  of  Tarlac,  one  of  the  principal  cities 
of  Luzon,  and  through  the  surrounding  country : 

I' 
AN  ASSEMBLY  OF  WOMEN 

Will  be  held  on  the  2d  of  November,  1899, 

in  the 
THEATER  OF  TARLAC, 

in  honor  of 
THE  NATIONAL  INDEPENDENCE 

and  of  those  among 

The  American  People  Who  Sympathize  with  the 
Filipino  Nation. 

PROGRAMME. 

FIRST  PART. 

(6  A.  M.) 

97 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

REVEILLE — Bands  of  music  will  march  through  the 
city. 

(8A.M.) 

Opening  Number — National  March. 

Opening  Address  by  the  President. 

Reading  of  Telegrams. 

Speeches  and  Poems. 

Donations  for  the  Wounded  in  the  Campaign. 

HYMN— AGUINALDO-BRYAN. 
Two- Step — La  Independencia. 

SECOND  PART. 

(4  P.  M.) 
General  Celebration. 

I  presume  there  would  be  quite  a  sale  of  that 
hymn,  Aguinaldo-Bryan,  among  our  Anti-Imperial 
ists  if  it  were  to  be  published  here. 

All  these  documents  bear  out  the  following  testi 
mony  of  the  Hon.  John  Barrett,  in  a  recent  signed 
article  in  the  Revieiv  of  Reviews; 

"  Following  up  all  these  unhappy  influences  to 
which  our  army  and  navy  had  to  quietly  submit  with 
out  turning  a  finger,  there  came  the  blow  from  behind 
that  did  more  harm  than  all  of  these  local  influences 
combined — the  agitation  in  America  in  behalf  of  the 
Filipinos  and  in  opposition  to  the  policy  of  our 
government  and  of  the  army  and  navy  as  advised  by 
such  tried  men  as  Admiral  Dewey  and  General  Otis. 
It  is  remarkable  how  quickly  the  idea  spread,  not 

98 


ANTI-IMPERIALISM  COST  LIVES 

only  through  the  Filipino  army,  but  among  the  peo 
ple  in  the  distant  interior,  that  the  United  States  was 
wavering  in  its  policy,  and  that  it  was  probable  that 
if  they  held  out  long  enough  and  persisted  in  their 
position  we  would  withdraw  our  army  and  give 
them  back  the  islands. 

"  Every  discordant  note  that  was  struck  in 
America  was  telegraphed  or  written  either  to  Hong 
Kong  or  Manila  and  found  its  way  by  first  oppor 
tunity  to  the  camps  of  the  Filipino  army  and  to  the 
columns  of  the  native  press.  Not  satisfied,  however, 
with  the  circulation  given  by  the  newspapers,  what 
was  being  said  and  done  in  America  was  printed  in 
circular  and  pamphlet  form  and  sent  among  the  peo 
ple  to  encourage  them.  If  the  senior  senator  of 
Massachusetts  could  have  witnessed  the  expression 
of  satisfaction  depicted  on  the  face  of  every  Filipino 
soldier  when  he  read  the  sentiments  expressed  by 
that  distinguished  man  in  the  halls  of  congress,  and 
then  had  seen  the  look  of  pain  upon  the  face  of  every 
American  soldier  when  he  realized  that  a  United 
States  senator  was  inspiring  the  enemy  opposite  him, 
I  am  of  the  humble  opinion  that  he  would  have  ex 
perienced  some  feeling  of  regret  at  the  direct  effect 
of  his  argument. 

"  I  heard  not  only  Admiral  Dewey  and  Maj.-Gen. 
Otis,  but  Gens.  MacArthur,  Anderson,  Hale,  Law- 
ton,  Brig.  Gen.  Otis  and  Cols.  Smith  and  Summers 
use  terms  as  strong  as  I  have  on  this  unhappy  fea 
ture  of  the  war." 

Here  is  another  letter  with  regard  to  the  same 
matter,  from  one  of  Aguinaldo's  secretaries  to  an 
other  : 

99 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

"  Filipino  Republic,  Sec.  of  Foreign  Affairs : 

"  Wishing  to  hold  a  meeting  in  the  morning  of 
Sunday  next  in  the  Presidential  Palace  of  this  re 
public  to  correspond  with  the  one  held  in  the  United 
States  by  Mr.  Bryan,  who  toasted  our  honorable 
president  as  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  world,  and  with 
the  object  of  carrying  this  out  with  the  utmost  pomp 
and  with  contributing  by  the  presence  of  your  sub 
ordinates  to  its  greater  splendor,  I  would  be  obliged 
if  you  would  come  to  see  me  for  a  conference  upon 
this  matter. 

"  May  God  keep  you  many  years. 
"  TARLAC,  October  26,  1899. 

"  FELIPE  BUENCAMINO, 
"  The  Secretary." 

Here  is  the  translation  of  a  report  from  a  pro 
vincial  chief  to  Aguinaldo's  Secretary  of  War, 
showing  how  our  enemies  in  his  province  regarded 
the  news  from  America : 

"  SECRETARY  OF  WAR,  Tarlas : 

"PROVINCIAL  CHIEF  ZAMBELE. — Received  your 
circular.  (The  order  just  above,  calling  for  the  ge 
neral  organization  of  these  banquets  and  celebra 
tions).  The  circular  was  received  with  animation 
and  patriotic  enthusiasm  by  the  people  gathered  in  a 
great  reunion  in  government  house.  We  had 
early  this  morning  a  gathering  of  civil  and  military 
officers  and  private  persons  to  celebrate  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  country  and  in  honor  of  Mr.  Bryan 
and  at  four  p.  m.  we  shall  have  the  second  part  of 

100 


the  meeting.      We  all  join   in  congratulating  our 
honorable  president,  the  government,  and  the  army. 
"  PROVINCIAL  CHIEF  ZAMBELE." 

The  comfort  and  aid  offered  by  the  Anti-Imperial 
ists  to  the  enemy  who  were  shooting  our  soldiers 
were  received  with  "  great  animation  and  patriotic 
enthusiasm."  What  a  motto  to  put  up  in  an  Ameri 
can  home ! — to  be  seen  by  the  mother  of  a  boy  who 
had  been  killed  in  the  Philippines ! 

In  the  spring  of  1899  our  forces  captured  a  Phil 
ippine  city  of  some  17,000  inhabitants.  Upon  tak 
ing  possession,  our  soldiers  found  the  following 
poster  (in  Spanish)  posted  up  in  all  the  prominent 
places  from  one  end  of  the  city  to  the  other : 

"  From  the  provincial  chief  of  this  province  re 
ceived  to-day,  the  9th  of  December,  the  tenor  of 
which  is  as  follows : 

"  *  I  have  the  great  pleasure  of  informing  your  ex 
cellencies  that  you  may  in  your  town  cause  to  be 
publicly  known  that  data  according  to  the  foreign 
newspapers  very  strongly  favorable  to  the  independ 
ence  of  our  fatherland  exists  in  the  fact  that  the 
party  of  the  North  American  people  which  calls  it 
self  the  Democratic  party,  preserving  unimpaired 
its  ancient  principles  and  traditional  institutions  by 
which  it  obtained  in  the  past  century  the  independ 
ence  of  its  own  country,  emancipating  it  from  Eng 
land,  sustains  and  defends  to-day  with  ardor  the 
declaration  of  independence  of  the  Philippines  and 

101 


^L  BEHIND 


that  the  Massachusetts  periodical  having  the  widest 
circulation  among  the  agriculturists  of  the  country 
known  under  the  name  of  The  Farm  and  Home, 
having  interested  its  subscribers  in  the  subject,  asked 
that  they  manifest  themselves  in  favor  of  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  Philippines  or  their  annexation, 
with  the  following  results: 


Section. 

For  inde 
pendence 

For  an 
nexation 

New  England  „  

I  277 

78s 

Middle  States  

8  888 

2  ^4^ 

Central  West   

4QOT 

3  102 

Southern  States  

I   7Q2 

I  083 

Pacific  Coast  

I  684 

I   IO3 

Total  

18  524 

8,4l6 

'  May  Providence  decree  that  in  the  election  for 
the  President  of  the  United  States  the  Democratic 
party,  which  defends  us,  shall  triumph,  and  not  the 
imperialistic  party,  which  is  headed  by  Mr.  McKin- 
ley,  and  which  attacks  us.' ' 

The  following  appears  to  have  been  distributed 
all  through  the  islands : 

:i  The  great  Democrat,  Dr.  Bryan,  one  of  the  most 
eminent  men  of  the  United  States,  is  assured  that 
he  will  be  the  future  President,  and  then  our  happy 
hours  begin.  There  have  also  been  celebrated  in  New 
York  and  Chicago  great  meetings  and  banquets  in 
honor  of  our  dearly  beloved  president,  Sr.  Agui- 

102 


ANTI-IMPERIALISM  COST  LIVES 

naldo,  who  was   entitled  one  of  the  world's  true 
heroes. 

"  The  masses  who  have  thus  voted  in  our  favor 
have  done  the  same  with  reference  to  Cuba,  asking 
her  independence,  for  which  she  is  already  to-day 
struggling. 

"  Finally,  the  conduct  of  the  Filipino  annexation- 
ists  condemns  itself.  They  have  changed  their  flag, 
as  they  change  their  shirts,  and  are  animated  solely 
by  momentary  lust  of  stolen  gold ;  but  by  their  own 
vile  conduct,  aided  by  their  thieving  country,  they 
are  only  raising  their  own  scaffold. 

"  God  guard  your  excellencies  many  years. 

"  GUINABATAN,  December  4,  1899. 

"  SIG.  DOMINGO  SAMSON." 

La  Independencia  was  the  Aguinaldo  organ  in  the 
Philippines.  Some  extracts  from  its  columns  are: 

"  AN    ADVERSARY    OF    MCKINLEY. 

"  Mr.  Bryan,  the  competitor  of  McKinley  in  the 
last  Presidential  election  and  the  candidate  selected 
for  the  future  by  the  Democratic  party,  has  published 
a  manifesto  which  has  caused  a  profound  sensation 
in  the  United  States. 

"  Mr.  Bryan  announces  himself  decidedly  opposed 
to  the  imperial  policy  of  the  Government,  and  shows 
the  danger  in  which  American  institutions  will  be 
placed  by  this  entirely  new  ambition  for  coloniza 
tion.  .  .  He  asks  that  the  regime  instituted  in 
Cuba  be  applied  to  all  the  territory  taken  from 
Spain.  .  . 

"  To  place  the  American  yoke  on  the  millions  of 

103 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

natives  who  wish  to  be  free,  200,000  men  will  be 
needed."  .  .  February  2,  1899. 

"  A  great  popular  meeting  was  held  in  New  York 
on  February  23  to  protest  against  the  imperialistic 
policy  of  the  United  States."  March  8,  i! 


"  Mr.  Bryan  .  .  .  declared  at  a  great  meeting  at 
Denver  that  the  United  States  could  not  institute 
a  colonial  policy.  '  Imperialism,'  he  said,  '  may 
increase  our  territory,  but  it  will  lower  our  ideals. 
It  is  a  step  backward,  etc.' '  March  28,  1899. 

Now,  luckily,  at  the  time  Funston  made  his  im 
portant  captures  he  found  a  lot  of  the  correspond 
ence  which  these  Anti-Imperialists  had  been  writing 
to  Aguinaldo  and  his  lieutenants.  Those  letters 
from  Americans  were  afterward  sent  home  with 
the  letters  from  other  Filipinos.  I  have  a  copy 
of  some  of  these  letters.  I  shall  quote  but  one 
or  two  of  them, — but  they  will  show  you  the  kind  of 
work  that  was  going  on. 

Here  is  one  from  a  man  whose  name  I  suppress, 
for  his  sake,  dated  at  Fort  Hamilton,  N.  Y.,  July  17, 
1899,  addressed  to  Senor  G.  Apacible,  Aguinaldo's 
agent  and  representative  at  Hong  Kong: 

DEAR  FRIEND  AND  BROTHER  :  Our  friend,  Albert 
S.  Parsons,  of  Lexington,  (Albert  S.  Parsons  is  the 

104 


ANTI-IMPERIALISM   COST  LIVES 

Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Anti- 
Imperialist  League)  gave  me  your  name  as  one  to 
whom  I  could  write  as  a  representative  of  the  Fili 
pinos.  I  am  a  member  of  the  Anti-Imperialist 
League,  of  Boston.  I  have  published  many  articles 
and  letters  denouncing  the  piratical  war  carried  on 
by  President  McKinley  against  your  people.  He 
and  General  Otis  and  all  his  troops  are  pirates  upon 
the  territory  of  the  natives. 

I  should  like  to  suggest  a  plan  to  you.  It  is  this : 
You  should  seize  some  official  of  rank  in  service  of 
the  United  States  and  then  inform  the  foreign  con 
suls  that  he  was  to  be  brought  before  a  council  of 
war  for  piracy,  and  write  to  said  consuls  to  have 
representatives  present  at  such  council  of  war  to 
see  that  it  is  legal." 

This  is  .giving  aid  and  comfort  to  an  enemy. 
A  man  by  the  name  of  Andre  was  once  hung  by  a 
man  by  the  name  of  George  Washington  in  this 
country  for  suggesting  to  an  American  officer  a  plan 
of  procedure. 

Here  is  another  one,  written  by  an  Anti-Imperial 
ist,  showing  a  conspiracy  between  him  and  a  Filipino 
to  deliberately  deceive  the  American  people  into  ac 
tion  founded  upon  the  belief  that  Dewey  and  Agui- 
naldo  were  allies: 

"  The  vital  thing,  and  nothing  else  counts,  is  what 
Dewey  said  and  did  when  he  last  met  Aguinaldo. 
That,  that,  that  is  the  thing ;  all  else  is  empty  wind. 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

The  sole  thing  to  have  impressed  upon  the  public  in 
America  would  be  the  chaining  of  Dewey  and  Agui- 
naldo  together  as  participators  in  common  action; 
you  surely  comprehend  what  this  means.  Think 
and  think  again.  It  means  success,  as  far  as 
possible." 

DOCUMENTS  SHOWING  FILIPINO  POLICY  AS  DECLARED 
BY  THEMSELVES.      THEY   CO-OPERATE   WITH 
ANTI-IMPERIALISTS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Here  is  perhaps  the  most  important  document  of 
all.  It  is  a  letter  from  Felipe  Agoncillo,  then 
Aguinaldo's  representative  in  Paris,  to  G.  Apacible 
and  I.  Santos,  at  that  time  Aguinaldo's  agents  in 
Hong  Kong.  Extracts  from  that  letter  are  as  fol 
lows  : 

"  Paris,  June  23,   1899. 

lakmg  into  serious  consideration  the  present 
condition  of  affairs,  /  am  convinced  the  political 
tactics  of  our  government  must  be  the  following: 
ist.  To  prolong  the  war  as  much  as  possible  .  .  . 
2nd.  Under  every  circumstance  the  armed  interven 
tion  of  any  power  must  be  avoided  because  it  would 
lead  only  to  fatal  divisions,  yd.  Foment  the  actions 
of  the  Democratic  party  of  the  United  States  which 
advocates  our  independence — I  am  doing  this  in  the 
way  it  seems  fitting  to  me.  .  .  4th.  I  do  not  think 
the  time  has  come  to  forward  diplomatic  notes  to  the 
chancelleries  for  if  this  was  done  at  the  present 
time  and  was  known  in  the  United  States,  it  would 
undoubtedly  cause  a  unification  of  national  feel- 

106 


ANTI-IMPERIALISM   COST  LIVES 

ing.  The  Democratic  and  Republican  parties 
would  unite  and  our  triumph  would  then  be  doubt 
ful. 

"  5th.  Observe  strictly  international  law  as  apply 
ing  to  public  and  to  private  rights  including  its  pre 
cepts  covering  persons  and  property  of  neutral  for 
eigners  avoiding  the  slightest  cause  for  complaint  on 
our  part  in  order  not  to  destroy  the  favorable  aspect 
in  which  we  are,  fortunately,  now  regarded  by  them. 
I  think  it  important  that  our  government  should 
constantly  send  to  all  our  Commanders  circulars 
charging  them  to  treat  with  respect  the  persons  and 
property  of  foreigners  (not  Yankees)  and  ordering 
the  most  rigid  observance  of  the  laws  of  war,  pub 
lishing  such  circulars  in  the  vicinity,  and  sending 
them  to  all  the  Consuls  in  Manila  and  to  me  for  pub 
lication  in  the  press  everywhere. 

"  Finally,  the  impossibility  of  the  United  States 
to  conquer  the  Philippines  by  force  and  the  opinion 
of  European  nations,  favorable  to  our  cause,  are 
going  to  be  the  principal  factors  in  our  triumph."  * 

That  letter,  in  my  judgment,  shows  the  exact 
situation.  Aguinaldo's  whole  campaign,  and  that 
of  the  insurgents  who  followed  him,  appear  to  have 
been  clearly  predicated  upon  Anti-Imperialist  sen 
timent  here  at  home.  This  letter  from  Agoncillo 
almost  proves  that,  if  language  has  any  meaning. 
All  the  evidence  here  presented  goes  to  support  that 
view. 

*  Italics  are  by  me.— F.  C.  C. 
107 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

While  here  is  the  silent,  unimpeachable  testimony 
of  the  dead.  It  cannot  be  gainsaid.  It  is  the  judg 
ment,  written  down  at  the  time  and  on  the  ground, 
of  a  great  American  soldier.  On  Oct.  6,  1899,  Gen. 
Lawton  wrote  a  letter  to  John  Barrett.  See  how 
the  hand  of  fate  crept  unseen  over  his  shoulder  and 
guided  the  pen,  as  he  wrote : 

"  I  wish  to  God  that  this  whole  Philippine  situa 
tion  could  be  known  by  everyone  in  America  as  I 
know  it.  If  the  real  history,  inspiration  and  condi 
tions  of  this  insurrection,  and  the  influences,  local 
and  external,  that  now  encourage  the  enemy,  could 
be  understood  at  home,  we  would  hear  no  talk 
of  unjust  '  shooting  of  government '  into  the  Fili 
pinos  or  hauling  down  our  flag  in  the  Philippines. 
.  .//  the  so-called  anti-imperialists  in  Boston  would 
honestly  ascertain  the  truth  on  the  ground,  and  not 
in  distant  America,  they,  whom  I  believe  to  be  hon 
est  men  misinformed,  would  be  convinced  of  the 
error  of  their  statements  and  conclusions  and  of  the 
unfortunate  effect  of  their  publications  here.  If  I 
am  shot  by  a  Filipino  bullet,  it  might  just  as  well 
come  from  one  of  my  own  men. 

.  .  .  These  are  strong  words,  and  yet  I  say 
them  because  I  know  from  my  own  observation, 
confirmed  by  the  stories  of  captured  Filipino  pris 
oners,  that  the  continuance  of  fighting  is  chiefly  due 
to  reports  that  are  sent  out  from  America  and  cir 
culated  among  these  ignorant  natives  by  the  leaders 
who  know  better."  * 

*  Italics  are  by  me. — F.  C.  C. 
IOS 


ANTI-IMPERIALISM   COST  LIVES 

Two  months  later,  while  standing  up  to  his  full 
height  in  the  middle  of  a  kneeling  file  of 
men  out  on  the  firing  line,  dressed  all  in 
white,  a  giant  figure  that  was  a  target  for  every 
hostile  marksman,  a  bullet  plunged  into  his  heart, 
and,  with  a  single  gasp,  the  great  soldier  was  gone. 
Think  of  the  message  he  sends  ringing  into  the 
ears  of  the  Anti-Imperialists  here  at  home !  "  If  I 
am  shot  by  a  Filipino  bullet,  it  might  as  well  come 
from  one  of  my  own  men !  " 

Here  is  another  light  on  the  present  situation. 
It  comes  from  one  in  whose  proven  bravery  and 
dash  the  American  people  have  cause  for  just  pride. 
I  think  that  the  following  extract  from  an  address 
made  before  the  Marquette  Club,  in  Chicago,  on  the 
nth  of  March,  1902,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the 
evidence  over  which  we  have  already  gone,  proves 
that  the  insurrection  in  the  Philippines  would  prob 
ably  have  ended  long  before  it  did,  if  we  could  only 
have  kept  the  Anti-Imperialists  quiet  at  home : 

"  Had  it  not  been,"  said  Gen.  Funston,  "  for  the 
so-called  peace-party  in  the  States,  the  insurrec 
tion  would  have  been  suppressed  finally  in  January, 
1900.  Since  that  time  600  lives  have  been  sacri 
ficed  and  millions  of  dollars  have  been  spent.  Were 
it  not  for  the  hope  of  the  few  leaders  still  under 

109 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

arms  that  the  United  States  is  on  the  verge  of  a 
civil  war  in  their  behalf  all  resistance  would  be  at 
an  end.  .  .  . 

The  responsibility  for  the  continuance  of  the  re 
sistance  to  our  army  should  be  placed  where  it  is 
due.  From  the  lips  of  Aguinaldo  himself  and  from 
other  leaders  of  the  insurrection,  I  know  that  for 
the  last  two  years  they  have  been  encouraged  to 
shoot  down  our  men  and  continue  their  warfare  by 
the  copperhead  sentiments  of  people  here  in  the 
States."* 

That  testimony  of  Gen.  Funston  is  certainly  in 
line  with  Agoncillo's  statement  that  "  taking  into 
consideration  the  present  conditions  of  affairs,  the 
political  tactics  of  (Aguinaldo's)  our  government 
must  be  the  following:  ist:  To  prolong  the  war 
as  much  as  possible  .  .  .  and  to  foment  the  actions 
of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  United  States,  which 
advocates  our  independence.  I  am  doing  this  in 
the  way  it  seems  fitting  to  me." 

I  believe  the  indictment  is  complete.  I  think  the 
chain  is  a  whole  one.  I  believe  every  link  is  there, 
and,  if  so,  then,  unless  all  this  testimony  is  false, 
unless  John  Barrett,  Gen.  Lawton,  Gen.  Funston, 
Admiral  Dewey,  Gens.  Otis,  MacArthur,  Anderson, 
Hale,  and  Col.  Smith  and  Col.  Summers  have  delib- 

*  Italics  are  by  me.— F.  C.  C. 
HO 


ANTI-IMPERIALISM  COST  LIVES 

erately  misstated— then  the  Anti-Imperialists  should 
be  charged  with  the  lives  of  many  an  American  sol 
dier.  If  the  foregoing  statements  are  true,  and  I 
believe  they  are,  there  is  no  escape  from  such  a 
conclusion. 

Then  it  is  wrong !  Then  it  is  wicked !  Then  it 
is  a  crime !— because  it  encourages  an  enemy  to 
shoot  down  an  American  soldier. 


in 


CHAPTER    X 

NO    SOLDIERS    AMONG    ANTI-IM 
PERIALISTS 

WHEN  I  first  began  to  collect  the  material  for  this 
work,  now  over  two  years  ago,  I  was  puzzled  to  find 
an  explanation  of  how  it  was  that  these  Anti-Im 
perialists  could  not  see  what  was  perfectly  evident 
to  our  soldiers,  that,  by  encouraging  the  enemy, 
the  Anti-Imperialists  were  striking  our  soldiers  "  a 
blow  from  behind," — and  it  is  only  recently  that 
I  have  found  a  reason  that  is  satisfactory  to  my 
mind.  Just  as  I  was  about  giving  up  discovering  a 
reasonable  solution  of  the  problem,  the  idea  struck 
me  all  of  a  sudden  that  only  those  who  had  never 
been  American  soldiers  would  stab  them  in  the  back 
and,  apparently,  not  know  that  any  blow  had  been 
struck.  It  must  be  ignorance  of  the  soldier's  life. 

A  hasty  glance  through  a  list  of  the  officers  of 
the  Anti-Imperialists  showed  me  that  the  New  Eng 
land  Anti-Imperialist  League  had  a  president,  a 

112 


NO     SOLDIERS    AMONG    ANTI-IMPERIALISTS 

treasurer,  secretary  and  an  executive  committee  of 
four;  in  all,  seven  active  officers.  Among  these 
there  was  not  a  single  old  soldier  and  I  believe  every 
one  of  the  seven  was  an  able-bodied  man  at  the 
time  of  the  Rebellion.  Then  I  counted  up  and  I 
found  that  they  had  32  vice-presidents,  and  in  that 
list  of  32  there  were,  as  near  as  I  could  ascertain 
(and  I  looked  them  up  as  far  as  I  have  been  able 
in  the  limited  time  at  my  disposition)  just  two  old 
soldiers,  neither  one  of  whom  had  carried  a  musket, 
— both  had  been  commissioned  officers, — so  that  of 
the  39  officers  of  the  league,  there  were  two  soldiers. 
It  began  to  look  as  if  I  had  the  right  explanation 
at  last ! 

Then  I  went  farther.  I  visited  the  library  of  the 
most  prominent  newspaper  in  Boston, — one  that 
gave  the  Anti-Imperialists  more  space  than  any 
other, — and  I  hunted  up  the  accounts  of  the  nine 
public  meetings  the  Anti-Imperialists  had  had, — 
eight  in  Boston  and  one  in  Cambridge.  In  these 
accounts  of  these  meetings,  I  found  the  mention  of 
just  203  names  of  men  who  sat  on  the  platform, 
presided,  made  speeches,  wrote  letters,  offered  reso 
lutions,  were  officers  of  the  organization  or  were 
noticed  in  the  audience.  Among  these  203  there 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

are  duplications  but,  as  that  will  not  affect  the  gen 
eral  results,  I  have  not  sifted  them  out  one  by  one. 
I  know  a  number  of  these  203  men  personally  and  a 
great  many  more  by  sight  and  reputation.  Many 
of  them  stand  very  high  in  my  own  profession — 
that  of  the  law.  They  are  all,  I  should  say,  without 
exception,  men  of  money  and  high  standing.  I 
have  spent  considerable  time  in  reading  up  the  his 
tory  of  many  of  these  men  whom  I  didn't  know, 
and  after  examining  them  all  with  considerable 
care,  I  can  find  just  three  out  of  the  whole  203  that 
are  the  names  of  men  who  were  in  the  Rebellion; 
— and  two  of  these  three  were  the  two  vice-presi 
dents  I  have  mentioned  before ;  and  all  of  the  three 
were  commissioned  officers : — and  I  believe  every 
one  of  the  whole  203  was  an  able-bodied  man  in 
1861. 

I  cannot  find  a  man  in  the  203  who  carried  a 
musket;  and  he  is  the  man  who  knows  what  war 
is, — the  private  and  the  non-com.  He  bears  the 
brunt  of  it, — and  I'll  say  now  that  I  don't  believe 
they  can  show  us  the  name  of  such  a  man  now  in 
his  right  mind  who  is  on  their  membership  rolls 
or  a  contributor  to  their  funds !  It  would  be  un 
natural.  It  seems  as  if  the  stay-at-homes  when 
114 


NO     SOLDIERS    AMONG    ANTI-IMPERIALISTS 

danger  comes  were  the  men  out  of  whom  we  make 
Anti-Imperialists.  They  are  the  first  in  peace  and 
the  last  in  war. 

And  here  is  a  curious  fact:  the  principal  repre 
sentative  of  the  Filipinos  in  this  country  was,  dur 
ing  the  past  year,  in  Boston,  for  many  weeks.  For 
much  of  the  time,  he  was,  I  am  informed,  the  guest 
of  a  representative  of  one  of  our  oldest  families.  If 
Aguinaldo  comes  to  the  United  States  he  will,  it  is 
already  asserted  in  Boston  newspapers,  be  received 
in  the  home  of  this  Bostonian  as  the  George  Wash 
ington  of  the  Filipinos. 

My  information  is,  and  I  would  expect  to  find 
it  true,  that  this  Boston  gentleman's  father  was  a 
Copperhead  in  the  Rebellion  and  his  grandfather 
a  Tory  in  the  Revolution.  The  consistency  of 
the  family  record  is  now  upheld  by  the  present 
Anti-Imperialist.  I  would  not  be  surprised  if  this 
will  be  found  to  be  true  of  the  many  of  the  Boston- 
ians  who  are  members  of  the  Anti-Imperialist 
League,  if  the  records  be  searched.  I  think  I  know 
offhand  of  several  cases  in  which  this  would  be  true. 


CHAPTER  XI 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN   ON   ANTI- 
IMPERIALISM 

WAR  draws  lines.  The  moment  the  first  hostile 
shot  is  fired  at  an  American  soldier,  every  Ameri 
can  who  is  not  for  the  soldier  is  against  him.  The 
statute  of  limitations  applies  at  that  instant  and  no 
true  American  will,  from  that  time  until  our  soldiers 
are  out  of  danger,  do  anything  knowingly  that  will 
increase  the  danger  to  them.  To  do  that  is  a  crime, 
as  it  leads  to  their  death. 

I  am  taking  high  ground  on  this  matter, — yes, 
very  decided  ground.  But  I  am  supported  by  very 
eminent  authority;  by  the  man  who  knew  more 
about  the  effects  of  Copperheadism  and  Anti-Im 
perialism  than,  probably,  any  other  of  his  time. 
Abraham  Lincoln  knew  what  the  "  blow  from  be 
hind  "  meant,  and  I  consider  that  he  and  one  of  his 
foremost  generals  spoke  the  deciding,  the  last  word 
on  this  question. 

As  I  consider  the  history  and  career  of  Copper- 
116 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    ON   ANTI-IMPERIALISM 

headism  and  of  Anti-Imperialism,  I  am  constantly 
reminded  of  these  verses  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  favorite 
poem,  "  O,  Why  Should  the  Spirit  of  Mortal  be 
Proud  "  : 

"  So  the  multitude  goes,  like  the  flower  or  the  weed 

That  withers  away  to  let  others  succeed; 
So  the  multitude  comes,  even  those  we  behold, 
To  repeat  every  tale  that  has  often  been  told. 

"  For  we  are  the  same  our  fathers  have  been; 

We  see  the  same  sights  our  fathers  have  seen, — 
We  drink  the  same  stream  and  view  the  same  sun, 
And  run  the  same  course  our  fathers  have  run. 

"  They  died,  ay!  they  died;  and  we  things  that  are  now, 

Who  walk  on  the  turf  that  lies  over  their  brow, 
Who  make  in  their  dwelling  a  transient  abode, 
Meet  the  things  that  they  met  on  their  pilgrimage 
road." 

Let  us  see  how  true  this  little  poem  is  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  used  to  keep  softly  mumbling  to  himself 
when  he  was  overburdened  with  worry,  disappoint 
ment  and  responsibility. 

The  question  of  Copperheadism  reached  its 
height  in  the  case  of  Vallandigham.  After  his  de 
feat  at  Fredericksburg,  Gen.  Burnside  took  com 
mand  of  the  Department  of  the  Ohio,  March  25, 
1863. 

117 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

"  He  found,"  say  Nicolay  and  Hay  in  their  ex 
haustive  history  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Vol.  VII,  Chap. 
XII,  "  his  department  infested  with  a  peculiarly 
bitter  opposition  to  the  Government  and  to  the  pros 
ecution  of  the  war,  amounting,  in  his  opinion,  to 
positive  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy;  and  he  de 
termined  to  use  all  the  powers  confided  to  him  to 
put  an  end  to  these  manifestations,  which  he  con 
sidered  treasonable.  .  .  He  issued,  on  the  I3th  of 
April,  an  order,  which  obtained  wide  celebrity  under 
the  name  of  General  Order  No.  38,  announcing  that 
'  all  persons  found  within  our  lines,  who  commit  acts 
for  the  benefit  of  the  enemies  of  our  country,  will  be 
tried  as  spies  or  traitors,  and,  if  convicted,  will 
suffer  death.'  In  enumerating  the  offenses  for 
which  arrest  would  be  made,  he  declared  that  '  the 
habit  of  declaring  sympathy  for  the  enemy  will  not 
be  allowed  in  this  department.  Persons  committing 
such  offenses  will  be  at  once  arrested,  with  a  view 
to  being  tried  as  above  stated,  or  sent  beyond  our 
lines  into  the  lines  of  their  friends.' " 


I  want  you  to  note  particularly  now,  if  you  will, 
the  last  part  of  the  sentence, — that  the  guilty  parties 
will  be  "tried  (as  spies  or  traitors)  or  sent  beyond 
our  lines  into  the  lines  of  their  friends."  This 
later  becomes  of  importance. 

For  some  years  Clement  L.  Vallandigham  had 
been  a  Democratic  congressman  from  Ohio,  but  was 
repudiated  by  his  constituents  because  of  his  sym 
pathy  with  the  South  and  was  defeated  for  re-elec- 
118 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    ON    ANTI-IMPERIALISM 

tion  during  the  progress  of  the  war.  In  a  speech 
delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the 
I4th  of  January,  1863,  he  said :  "  I  was  satisfied 
-.  .  .  that  the  secret  but  real  purpose  of  the  war 
was  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  States  .  .  .  and 
with  it  ...  the  change  of  our  present  demo 
cratic  government  into  an  imperial  despotism." 

Copperheads  never  seem  to  advance,  whether  in 
the  time  of  the  Rebellion  or  in  that  of  the  Spanish 
War.  How  that  speech  of  Vallandigham's  sounds 
like  dozens  we  have  read  since  the  beginning  of  the 
war  in  the  Philippines !  The  very  name,  Anti-Im 
perialists,  means  "  against  an  Empire."  Here  is  an 
extract  from  a  speech  by  the  distinguished  president 
of  the  Anti-Imperialists  delivered  by  him  in  Boston 
two  years  ago : 

"  I  am  here  to  plead  for  America  and  I  have 
reached  the  point  where  I  am  ready  to  avow  that  the 
President  intended  from  the  opening  of  the  war 
with  Spain  to  transfer  this  Government  from  a 
republic  to  an  Empire." 

In  a  speech  delivered  at  the  Second  Annual  Meet 
ing  of  the  New  England  Anti-Imperialist  League 
on  November  24,  1900,  the  same  gentleman  said : 

"He  (Pres.  McKinley)  has  entered  upon  an  un 
dertaking,  beginning  in  the  year  1898,  if  not  earlier, 

119 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

which  means  nothing  less  than  the  subversion  of 
this  government — a  change  of  its  character  from  a 
republic  to  an  empire.  .  .  .  Is  it  to  be  presumed 
that  the  President,  when  he  extorted  the  Philippine 
Islands  from  Spain,  had  any  other  purpose  than  a 
purpose  to  change  the  government  from  a  Republic 
to  an  Empire?  " 

Vallandigham  would  have  used  the  same  expres 
sions.  The  fact  that  the  Empire  they  prophesied 
forty  years  ago  has  not  yet  arrived,  while  the  names 
of  the  men  who  saw  it  coming  have  long  since  been 
forgotten,  fails  to  impress  them.  The  moment  there 
is  a  war  they  fairly  bound  out  of  their  chairs  and 
shout  at  the  top  of  their  voices  that  they  won't  go 
because  they  don't  approve  of  the  purpose  of  it, 
which  purpose  is  to  change  this  Government  into 
an  Empire. 

So  we  have  the  same  cry  in  1898  that  Vallandig 
ham  made  in  1863.  At  a  meeting  at  Mt.  Vernon, 
O.,  Vallandigham  called  the  President,  "King 
Lincoln  "  and  advised  the  people  to  come  up  together 
at  the  ballot-box  and  "hurl  the  tyrant  from  his 
throne."  Within  a  year  and  a  half,  a  United  States 
Senator  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  appears  to  have 
called  Mr.  McKinley,  "  William  the  First,  Emperor 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Philippines." 


120 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    ON    ANTI-IMPERIALISM 

For  his  sayings  at  these  meetings,  General  Burn- 
side  had  Vallandigham  arrested  under  General 
Order  No.  38,  tried  before  a  military  commission 
and  found  guilty  of  the  charge  of  "  publicly  expres 
sing,  in  violation  of  General  Order  No.  38,  his  sym 
pathy  for  those  in  arms  against  the  Government  of 
the  United  States,  declaring  disloyal  sentiments  and 
opinions,  with  the  object  and  purpose  of  weakening 
the  power  of  the  Government  in  its  efforts  to  sup 
press  an  unlawful  rebellion."  They,  therefore,  sen 
tenced  him  to  be  placed  in  close  confinement  in  some 
fortress  of  the  United  States  .  .  .  there  to  be 
kept  during  the  continuance  of  the  war. 

"  But,"  say  Nicolay  and  Hay,  "  before  the  finding 
of  the  commission  was  made  public,  George  E. 
Pugh,  as  counsel  for  Vallandigham,  applied  to  Judge 
Leavitt  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  sitting  in 
Cincinnati,  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  .  .  .  The 
most  noticeable  feature  of  the  trial  was  a  written  ad 
dress  from  General  Burnside  himself  in  which  he 
explained  and  defended  his  action."  He  said  in 
part: 

"  If  it  is  my  duty  and  the  duty  of  the  troops  to 
avoid  saying  anything  that  would  weaken  the  army 
by  preventing  a  single  recruit  from  joining  the 
ranks,  by  bringing  the  laws  of  Congress  into  disre 
pute,  or  by  causing  dissatisfaction  in  the  ranks,  it  is 
equally  the  duty  of  every  citizen  in  the  department  to 
avoid  the  same  evil.  If  I  were  to  find  a  man  from  the 

121 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

enemy's  country  distributing,  in  my  camps,  speeches 
of  their  public  men  that  tended  to  demoralize  the 
troops,  or  to  destroy  their  confidence  in  the  constitu 
tional  authorities  of  that  government,  I  would  have 
him  tried  and  hung,  if  found  guilty,  and  all  the  rules 
of  modern  warfare  would  sustain  me.  Why  should 
such  speeches  from  our  own  public  men  be  al 
lowed?" 

There  is  the  exact  point.  Why  should  we  allow 
our  public  men  to  make  speeches  for  which  we 
would  hang  an  enemy,  if  he  made  them?  General 
Burnside's  view  was  that,  in  time  of  war,  everybody 
was  included  under  one  of  two  classes.  "  The  simple 
words  '  patriot '  and  '  traitor  '  are  comprehensive 
enough,"  said  he;  and  then  he  went  on  to  say: 

"  Let  them  freely  discuss  the  policy  in  a  proper 
tone ;  but  my  duty  requires  me  to  stop  license  and  in 
temperate  discussion,  which  tend  to  weaken  the  au 
thority  of  the  Government  and  army;  whilst  the 
latter  is  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy  it  is  cowardly 
so  to  weaken  it.  ...  There  is  no  fear  of  the  peo 
ple  losing  their  liberties ;  we  all  know  that  to 
be  the  cry  of  demagogues  and  none  but  the  ignorant 
will  listen  to  it." 

The  United  States  Circuit  Court  refused  to  give 
Vallandigham  his  liberty  and  Vallandigham  would 
have  been  in  close  confinement  until  the  end  of  the 

123 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    ON    ANTI-IMPERIALISM 

war  had  it  not  been  for  Mr.  Lincoln.     He,  however, 
commuted  the  sentence. 

"  The  method  of  punishment  which  he  chose,"  say 
Nicolay  and  Hay,  "  was  doubtless  suggested  by  a 
paragraph  in  Burnside's  Order  No.  38,  which  had 
mentioned,  as  a  form  of  punishment  for  the  declara 
tion  of  sympathy  with  the  enemy,  deportation,  '  be 
yond  our  lines  into  the  lines  of  their  friends.'  He, 
therefore,  .  .  .  directed  that  Vallandigham  be 
sent  within  the  Confederate  lines.  This  was  done 
about  a  fortnight  after  the  court  martial.  Mr. 
Vallandigham  was  sent  to  Tennessee,  and,  on  the 
25th  of  May,  was  escorted  by  a  small  cavalry  force 
to  the  Confederate  lines  near  Murfreesboro.  After 
a  short  parley  with  the  rebel  videttes,  who  made  no 
objection  to  receiving  the  prisoner,  he  was  delivered 
into  the  hands  of  a  single  private  soldier  of  an 
Alabama  regiment." 

This  action  of  Mr.  Lincoln  led  to  renewed  upris 
ings  of  the  Copperheads,  and  they  poured  in  their 
memorials  on  Mr.  Lincoln  in  a  steady  stream.  To 
one  presented  to  him  by  a  large  meeting  in  Albany, 
N.  Y.,  he  made  a  reply,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
said,  among  other  things: 

/  "  He  who  dissuades  one  man  from  volunteering, 
or  induces  one  soldier  to  desert,  weakens  the  Union 
cause  as  much  as  he  who  kills  a  Union  soldier  in 
battle." 

123 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

The  opening  sentence  of  No.  4  of  the  Anti-Im 
perialist  reads  thus : 

'  The  main  purpose  of  this  number  is  to  .  .  , 
stop  the  supplies  of  men  for  the  maintenance  or  in 
crease  of  the  army  of  subjugation  by  such  proofs  of 
the  evil  conditions  of  that  service  as  may  prevent 
intelligent  men  from  risking  their  lives  or  their 
health  in  the  effort  to  deprive  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Philippine  Islands  of  their  liberty." 

On  p.  25  of  No.  2  of  the  Anti-Imperialist,  Mr. 
Atkinson  says : 

"Before  the  next  Congress  can  be  brought  to 
gether  it  will  become  plain  (that)  ...  the  way  for 
the  youth  of  the  land  to  avoid  disease  and  death  in 
the  tropics  is  by  refusing  to  volunteer  or  to  enlist  in 
the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States." 

These  come  squarely  under  Mr.  Lincoln's  state 
ment. 

Continuing,  Mr.  Lincoln  said : 

"  Must  I  shoot  a  simple-minded  soldier  boy  who 
deserts,  while  I  must  not  touch  a  hair  of  a  wily  agi 
tator  who  induces  him  to  desert?  This  is  none  the 
less  injurious  when  effected  by  getting  a  father,  or 
brother,  or  friend  into  a  public  meeting  and  there 
working  upon  his  feelings  till  he  is  persuaded  to 
write  the  soldier  boy  that  he  is  fighting  in  a  bad 
cause,  for  a  wicked  administration  of  a  contemp 
tible  government,  too  weak  to  arrest  and  punish  him 
124 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    ON    ANTI-IMPERIALISM 

if  he  desert.  I  think  that  in  such  a  case  to  silence 
the  agitator  and  save  the  boy  is  not  only  constitu 
tional,  but,  withal,  a  great  mercy." 

Mr.  Lincoln  is  right.  The  "  wily  agitator  "  is  the 
real  culprit ;  and  then,  with  that  fine  sense  of  humor 
which  always  characterized  him,  he  drove  home  his 
point  in  this  wise: 

"  Nor  am  I  able  to  appreciate  the  danger  appre 
hended  by  the  meeting  that  the  American  people 
will,  by  means  of  military  arrests  during  the  rebel 
lion,  lose  the  right  of  public  discussion,  the  liberty 
of  speech  and  the  press,  the  law  of  evidence,  trial  by 
jury  and  habeas  corpus  throughout  the  indefinite 
peaceful  future,  which  I  trust  lies  before  them,  any 
more  than  I  am  able  to  believe  that  a  man  could  con 
tract  so  strong  an  appetite  for  emetics,  during  tem 
porary  illness,  as  to  persist  in  feeding  upon  them 
during  the  remainder  of  his  healthful  life." 

In  the  meantime,  the  Democratic  party  of  Ohio 
had  nominated  Vallandigham  for  Governor,  and 
they  asked  Mr.  Lincoln  to  allow  Mr.  Vallandigham 
to  return  to  Ohio.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  Yankee.  He 
was  a  horse-trader  by  nature  and  he  could  win  every 
time  at  a  blind  swap  of  jackknives.  So  he  thought 
he  would  try  a  trade  with  these  Ohio  Democrats. 
He  stated  to  them  three  propositions,  with  only  two 
of  which  we  need  to  concern  ourselves : 

I25 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

"  2.  That  no  one  of  you  will  do  anything  which,  in 
his  own  judgment,  will  tend  to  hinder  the  increase  or 
favor  the  decrease  or  lessen  the  efficiency  of  the 
army  and  navy,  while  engaged  in  the  effort  to 
suppress  the  rebellion." 

"  3.  And  that  each  of  you  will,  in  his  sphere,  do 
all  he  can  to  have  the  officers,  soldiers,  and  seamen  of 
the  army  and  navy,  while  engaged  in  the  effort  to 
suppress  the  rebellion,  paid,  fed,  clad,  and  otherwise 
well  provided  for  and  supported." 

After  stating  these  propositions  Mr.  Lincoln 
made  this  offer  to  his  correspondents — that  if  they 
would  write  their  names  "  and  nothing  else  "  on  the 
back  of  the  President's  letter,  committing  them 
selves  to  these  propositions,  he  would  release  Val- 
landigham — and  they  would  not  sign  it!  They 
would  not  sign  it!  If  they  had,  they  would  have 
had  to  stop  talking ;  and  so  Vallandigham  continued 
his  sojourn  in  a  warmer  climate, — which  I  presume 
some  embittered  people  hope  is  still  his  fate, — and 
the  Anti-Imperialists  would  not  have  signed  it 
either.  That  reminds  me  of  a  cartoon  I  saw 
some  time  ago  in  a  Western  paper.  It 
showed  Aguinaldo,  after  his  capture,  in  the  act  of 
signing  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States. 
When  he  had  affixed  his  signature,  he  turned  to  a 
group  of  Anti-Imperialists  who  were  watching  him, 
126 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    ON    ANTI-IMPERIALISM 

at  the  head  of  whom  were  Edward  Atkinson  and  E. 
Erving  Winslow,  and  said  to  them,  as  he  held  out 
the  oath,  and  offered  them  his  pen,  "  Here,  boys, 
I've  signed  it.  Now  it's  your  turn  "  ;  but  they  had 
swrooned. 

Now  let  me  show  you  how  far  these  Anti-Impe 
rialists  and  Copperheads  will  go.  Just  as  soon  as 
Vallandigham  had  been  left  in  Alabama,  he  started 
for  Richmond,  where  he  entered  into  conference  with 
the  highest  Confederate  officials.  John  B.  Jones,  a 
clerk  in  the  rebel  war  office  at  Richmond,  made  the 
following  entry  in  his  diary  on  the  22d  of  June, 
1863. 

"  (Mr.  Vallandigham)  says  that  if  we  can  only 
hold  out  this  year,  that  the  peace  party  of  the  North 
would  sweep  the  Lincoln  dynasty  out  of  political  ex 
istence.  He  seems  to  have  thought  that  our  cause 
was  sinking  and  feared  we  would  submit,  which 
would,  of  course,  be  ruinous  to  his  party!  But  he 
advises  strongly  against  any  invasion  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  for  that  would  unite  all  parties  at  the  North, 
and  so  strengthen  Lincoln's  hands  that  he  would  be 
able  to  crush  all  opposition  and  trample  upon 
the  constitutional  rights  of  the  people.  Mr.  V. 
said  nothing  to  indicate  that  either  he  or  the 
party  had  any  other  idea  than  that  the  Union  would 
be  reconstructed  under  Democratic  rule.  The  Presi 
dent  (Davis)  indorsed  with  his  own  pen  on  this 
document  that  in  regard  to  invasion  of  the  North 

127 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

experience  proved  the  contrary  of  what  Mr.  V. 
asserted."  (Jones,  "A  Rebel  War  Clerk's  Diary," 
\ol.  I.,  pp.  357,  358.) 

He  was  conspiring  with  the  Confederate  Cabinet 
against  his  country;  giving  them  his  best  judgment 
and  any  information  he  had!  He  was  a  common 
spy.  The  Anti-Imperialists,  or  Copperheads,  would 
say  that  he  was  only  "exercising  the  right  of  free 
speech."  They  do  not  see  anything  wrong  about 
that.  Those  notes  of  that  Rebel  Clerk  show  that 
Vallandigham  was  an  Anti-Imperialist  and  his  very 
words,  even,  are  exactly  those  of  the  Anti-Imper 
ialist  who  sat  in  Congress  thirty-five  years  later  and 
said :  "  If  the  Philippines  are  not  subdued  by  the 
time  of  the  next  election,  they  never  will  be ;  for  Mc- 
Kinley  will  be  swept  out  of  power  and  the  nation 
will  then  see  to  it  that  our  army  is  withdrawn." 

Vallandigham  said  "  if  (you)  can  only  hold  out 
this  year,  the  peace  party  will  sweep  the  Lincoln 
dynasty  out  of  political  existence."  The  similarity 
is  still  further  continued  when  it  is  remembered  that 
both  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  McKinley  were  landed 
in  the  White  House  at  their  next  respective  elections 
by  landslides,  both  of  them. 


138 


CHAPTER  XII 

FORWARD 

Now  let  us  give  a  little  consideration  to  the  prob 
lem  of  the  Philippines  as  it  presents  itself  to-day. 
Despite  all  of  this  attack  upon  him,  Mr.  McKinley 
kept  right  on  trying  to  establish  order.  The  Anti- 
Imperialists  raised  a  great  hue  and  cry  about  our 
Constitution  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
They  said  we  couldn't  govern  the  Filipinos  in  the 
only  way  we  now  can,  for  the  moment  and  under  the 
circumstances,  till  they  have  learned  how  to  guide 
their  own  ship, — they  said  our  constitution  forbade 
it. 

Well,  we  need  not  discuss  that.  The  United 
States  Supreme  Court  has  since  decided  that  the 
Anti-Imperialists  were  wrong.  But  I  want  to  set 
down  one  thought,  i.  e.t  that  if  we  have  in  this,  the 
leading  republic  of  the  world,  a  constitution  that  for 
bids  our  extending  a  helping  hand  to  any  other  peo 
ple  on  the  globe  who  are  under  the  heel  of  a 
monarchy,  who  need  an  experienced  hand  to  help 
them  while  they  set  up  a  government  of  their  own, 
129 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

then  there  is  something  the  matter  with  that  consti 
tution  ;  and,  further,  we  know  enough  about  Thomas 
Jefferson,  and  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  George 
Washington,  and  Samuel  Adams,  and  Benjamin 
Franklin  and  all  the  rest  of  the  immortals  who  had 
a  hand  in  constructing  it  that  if  it  prevents  our  help 
ing  a  down-trodden  neighbor,  no  matter  how  near  or 
dear  he  may  be  to  us,  then  they,  unwittingly,  made 
an  error,  for  they  would  never  have  absolutely  de 
nied  to  others  perhaps  the  only  chance  to  secure  that 
for  which  they  themselves  had  been  ready  to  die — 
and  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  has  decided 
on  this  side  of  it  and  we  have  legally  governed  Cuba 
and  Porto  Rico  for  four  years  and  have  turned  Cuba 
over  to  her  own  people,  free  and  independent.  We 
shall  soon  do  the  same  for  Porto  Rico  and  we  can 
do  the  same  thing  in  the  same  way  for  the  Philip 
pines  and  we  are,  I  believe,  going  to  do  that,  too. 

We  can  take  hold  with  these  Filipinos  and  help 
them  set  up  a  republic  of  their  own,  and  then  we  are 
through  with  them  until  they  need  us  again.  I  be 
lieve  that  that  is  and  is  to  be  the  policy  of  the  great 
majority  of  our  countrymen.  That  is  all  that  we 
have  been  trying  to  do,  as  I  understand  it  from  the 
start,  and  it  is  all  that  we  are  trying  to  do  now. 
130 


FORWARD 

This  was,  I  believe,  Mr.  McKinley's  view  when  he 
decided  that  we  should  take  the  islands,  and  the  only 
purpose  he  had  in  mind.  Here  are  his  words  for 
that: 

In  his  letter  of  acceptance  of  his  second  nomina 
tion  for  the  presidency,  he  says : 

"  In  March,  1900,  earnestly  desiring  to  promote 
the  establishment  of  a  stable  government  in  the 
archipelago,  I  appointed  the  following  civil  commis 
sion  :  The  Hon.  William  H.  Taft,  of  Ohio ;  Prof. 
Dean  C.  Worcester,  of  Michigan;  the  Hon.  Luke 
I.  Wright,  of  Tennessee;  the  Hon.  Henry  C. 
Ide,  of  Vermont,  and  the  Hon  ^Bernard  Moses, 
of  California."  We  had  no  better  men  whom 
we  could  send  in  the  whole  country.  "  My 
instructions  to  them  contained  the  follow 
ing:  You  (the  secretary  of  war)  (1900  Kept.  Secy. 
War,  p.  72)  will  instruct  the  commission  to  devote 
their  attention  in  the  first  instance  to  the  establish 
ment  of  municipal  governments,  in  which  the  natives 
of  the  islands,  both  in  the  cities  and  in  the  rural 
communities  shall  be  afforded  the  opportunity  to 
manage  their  own  local  affairs  to  the  fullest  extent 
of  which  they  are  capable, and  subject  to  the  least  de 
gree  of  supervision  and  control  which  a  careful  study 
of  their  capacities  and  observation  of  the  working  of 
native  control  show  to  be  consistent  with  the  main 
tenance  of  law,  order  and  loyalty." 

Is  there  any  Imperialism  about  that?     And  those 
are,  I  understand,  the  orders  under  which  that  com- 
13* 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

mission  is  working  to-day.  I  am  informed  that  those 
instructions  have  not  been  at  all  changed  from  that 
day  to  this.  Making  republics, — and  we  have  been 
making  three  of  them  for  four  years — is  not 
Imperialism.  Mr.  McKinley  believed  what  his  com 
mission  told  him,  when  they  said  that  unless  we  did 
stay  in  the  Philippines  now  they  would  lapse  into 
anarchy.  "  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  McKinley,  in  sub 
stance,  "  we'll  take  charge  of  them  temporarily ;  but 
as  fast  as  you  can  do  it  with  safety  to  the  inhabit 
ants,  you  must  turn  over  the  control  to  the  Fili 
pinos."  That  is  the  substance  of  what  I  have  just 
quoted.  That  is  what  it  means,  if  it  means  anything. 

MR.  MCKINLEY'S  SECOND  COMMITTEE.  THE  TAFT  COM 
MISSION  AND  QUALIFICATIONS  OF  ITS  MEMBERS 

Take  this  last  commission, — the  Taft  Commission. 
First,  let  us  look  at  their  qualifications.  Are  they 
men  of  sufficient  learning,  standing,  and  worth  to 
warrant  us  in  giving  serious  attention  to  what  they 
tell  us  they  see  and  to  what  they  give  us  as  their  best 
judgment? 

As  President  of  the  Commission,  Mr.  McKinley 
appointed  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Taft,  of  Ohio.  He  comes 
of  a  distinguished  family,  his  father  having  been 
132 


FORWARD 

Attorney-General  and  Secretary  of  War  in  Grant's 
cabinet  and,  later,  Minister  to  Austria  and  Russia 
under  President  Arthur.  The  President  of  the 
Philippine  commission  was  born  in  Cincinnati  in 
1857.  He  is  a  graduate  of  Yale  and  the  Cincinnati 
Law  School.  In  '81  he  was  made  Prosecuting  At 
torney  of  his  home  county;  was  soon  after  Internal 
Revenue  Collector  for  the  ist  District  of  Ohio ;  in  '83 
he  resigned  and  took  up  the  active  practice  of  the  law. 
In  two  years  he  was  made  Assistant  Solicitor  of  Ham 
ilton  County.  In  '87  he  was  appointed  by  Governor 
Foraker  to  be  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Cin 
cinnati.  In  1888  he  was  elected  for  a  term  of  five 
years  to  that  office.  In  1890  he  resigned  to  become 
Solicitor  General  of  the  United  States  under  Harri 
son.  In  1892  he  was  appointed  by  the  latter  to  be 
United  States  Circuit  Judge  for  the  6th  Circuit.  In 
'93  Yale  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  LL.  D. 
He  is  Senior  Circuit  Judge  of  the  United  States. 
In  1896  he  was  made  Dean  of  the  Law  Dept.  of  the 
University  of  Cincinnati.  He  has  been  greatly 
honored  by  his  fellow-lawyers  and  in  '95  delivered 
the  annual  address  before  the  National  Bar  Associa 
tion. 

Bernard  Moses  is  the  President  of  the  University 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

of  California.  He  was  born  in  1846,  graduated 
from  the  University  of  Michigan  and  afterwards 
spent  several  years  in  Europe  in  the  Universities  of 
Leipsic  and  Berlin.  In  '74  he  was  given  the  de 
gree  of  Ph.  D.  at  the  University  of  Heidelberg. 
Soon  after  he  was  called  to  the  Chair  of  History  at 
Albion  College,  Michigan ;  then  three  years  later  he 
was  offered  and  accepted  the  Chair  of  History  and 
Political  Economy  at  the  University  of  California, 
which  he  occupied  until  his  appointment  to  this  com 
mission.  He  is  an  author  of  highest  standing  on 
political  quetstions  and  Professor  Bryce  says  of  his 
"  Essay  on  the  Constitution  "  that  it  is  "  the  work 
of  the  age."  He  has  delivered  courses  of  lectures  at 
different  times  at  Cornell,  University  of  Michigan, 
and  University  of  Chicago.  At  the  time  of  his  ap 
pointment  to  this  commission  he  was  engaged  upon 
the  production  of  a  work  which  students  of  history 
await  with  greatest  impatience,  called  "  The  Colonial 
Systems  of  Different  Nations." 

Prof.  Worcester  was  a  member  of  the  first  Philip 
pine  Commission  and  his  biography  we  have  already 
gone  over. 

Hon.  Luke  I.  Wright  was  born  fifty-five  years 
ago  in  Tennessee.  He  has  there  practiced  law 
134 


FORWARD 

continuously  and  is  well  known  in  his  profes 
sion  as  one  of  the  ablest  jurists  in  the  South.  He 
is  a  stanch  Democrat  and  is  the  law  partner  of 
United  States  Senator  Turley  from  that  State. 

Hon.  Henry  C.  Ives  was  born  in  1844  in  Ver 
mont,  where  he  has  lived  ever  since,  except  when 
in  the  service  of  his  country  elsewhere.  He  was 
graduated  from  St.  Johnsbury  Academy  and  then 
from  Dartmouth.  Immediately  upon  leaving  the 
latter  he  became  President  of  the  Academy  from 
which  he  first  graduated.  In  1870  he  began  to 
practice  law  in  St.  Johnsbury.  He  soon  at 
tained  high  rank  in  his  profession.  He  became 
State  Attorney  for  his  home  county,  then  went  to 
the  State  Senate  for  four  years,  was  President  of  the 
Republican  State  Convention,  delegate  to  the  Na 
tional  Convention;  in  1891  he  was  appointed  Com 
missioner  of  the  United  States  to  act  with  commis 
sioners  from  England  and  Germany  in  settling  land 
troubles  in  Samoa.  His  fitness  for  the  place  was  so 
evident  that  he  was  chosen  chairman  of  the  joint 
commission.  In  '93  he  was  appointed  Chief  Justice 
of  Samoa.  The  State  of  Vermont  considers  him 
one  of  her  greatest  sons. 

Now,  these  are  the  men  whom  Mr.   McKinley 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

sent  to  the  Philippines  as  his  second  commission. 
He  took  the  precaution  to  send  a  second  committee 
in  order  that  he  might  minimize  the  chances  of  er 
ror.  It  is  submitted  that  no  abler  men  could  have 
been  found  in  the  United  States  available  for  the 
service.  As  a  testimony  from  the  opposition  on 
this  point,  I  want  to  quote  an  editori  1  of  the  Boston 
Globe,  under  date  of  February  5,  1902,  The  Boston 
Globe  is  the  leading  Democratic  paper  in  New 
England : 

"  We  shall  have  to  take  it  for  granted,  perhaps, 
that  what  Governor  Taft  says  of  the  situation  in  the 
Philippines  is  correct.  At  any  rate,  that  is  all  the 
testimony  we  have  and  it  has  been  gotten  with  a 
great  expense  and  with  great  thoroughness." 

TAFT  COMMISSION'S  REPORT  TO  MR.   MCKINLEY 
Now  let  us  see  what  this  commission  told  Mr. 
McKinley : 

Here  is  an  extract  from  their  report  which  is 
found  on  pp.  80,  81,  and  82  of  the  annual  report  of 
the  secretary  of  war  for  the  year  1900: 

"  Manila,  August  21,  1900. 
"  Secretary  of  War, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
"  Replying    to    dispatch    Commission     reports : 

136 


FORWARD 

It  has  for  two  months  and  a  half  made  diligent  in 
quiries  into  conditions  prevailing.  Change  of  policy 
by  turning  islands  over  to  a  coterie  of  Tagalog  poli 
ticians  will  blight  their  fair  prospects  of  enormous 
improvement,  drive  out  capital,  make  life  and  prop 
erty—  -  secular  and  religious — most  insecure,  banish 
by  fear  of  cruel  proscription  considerable  body  of 
conservative  Filipinos  who  have  aided  Americans 
in  well-founded  belief  that  their  people  are  not  now 
fit  for  self-government,  and  re-introduce  the  same 
oppression  and  corruption  which  existed  in  all  prov 
inces  under  Malolos  government  during  the  eight 
months  of  their  control.  The  result  will  be  factional 
strife  between  jealous  leaders,  chaos,  and  anarchy 
and  will  require  and  justify  active  intervention  of 
our  government  or  some  other. 

BERNARD  MOSES. 

DEAN  C.  WORCESTER. 

LUKE  I.  WRIGHT. 

HENRY  C.  IDE. 

WILLIAM  C.  TAFT." 

BOTH    OF    MR      MCKINLEY' S     COMMISSIONS     AGREE 
UNANIMOUSLY     ON     FACTS. 

This  is  just  what  the  first  commission,  the  Schur- 
man  commission,  also  told  Mr.  McKinley.  Two 
commissions  made  up  of  the  ablest  men  of  both 
parties  that  Mr.  McKinley  could  select, — and  I  have 
never  heard  even  an  opponent  say  that  we  could 
have  selected  better  men — tell  the  president  that  the 
Filipinos  cannot  run  a  republic  now.  Mr.  Edward 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

Atkinson  and  his  friends  say  that  the  Filipinos  can. 
Now,  on  whose  say  so  shall  we  act?  This  is  about 
all  there  is  to  it.  The  American  people  must  take 
somebody's  word. 

Mr.  McKinley  took  the  unanimous  opinion  of  his 
two  commissions.  I  expect  the  American  people 
will  do  the  same.  In  his  letter  of  instructions  to  the 
second  Philippine  Commission  (1900  Rep.  Sec. 
War,  p.  72),  Mr.  McKinley  said: 

"  The  articles  of  capitulation  of  the  city  of  Manila 
on  the  1 3th  of  August,  1898,  concluded  with  these 
words.  '  This  city,  its  inhabitants,  its  churches,  and 
religious  worship,  its  educational  establishments, 
and  its  private  property  of  all  descriptions  are  placed 
under  the  special  safeguard  of  the  faith  and  honor 
of  the  American  army.'  I  believe  that  this  pledge 
has  been  faithfully  kept.  As  high  and  sacred  an  ob 
ligation  rests  upon  the  government  of  the  United 
States  to  give  protection  for  property  and  life,  civil 
and  religious  freedom,  and  wise,  firm,  and  unselfish 
guidance  in  the  paths  of  peace  and  prosperity  to  all 
the  people  of  the  Philippine  Islands.  I  charge  this 
commission  to  labor  for  the  full  performance  of  this 
obligation,  which  concerns  the  honor  and  conscience 
of  their  country,  in  the  firm  hope  that  through  their 
labor  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Philippine  Islands 
may  come  to  look  back  with  gratitude  to  the  day 
when  God  gave  victory  to  American  arms  at  Manila 
and  set  their  land  under  the  sovereignty  and  the 
protection  of  the  people  of  the  United  States." 

133 


FORWARD 

And  in  a  speech  at  San  Francisco,  when  he  and 
Mrs.  McKinley  took  the  trip  to  the  Pacific  Coast 
two  years  ago  that  proved  almost  fatal  to  her,  Mr. 
McKinley  said : 

X  "  These  Philippine  Islands  are  ours,  not  to  sub 
jugate  but  to  emancipate ;  not  to  rule  in  the  power 
of  might,  but  to  take  to  those  distant  people  the  prin 
ciples  of  liberty,  of  freedom,  of  conscience  and  of 
opportunity  that  are  enjoyed  by  the  people  of  the 
United  States." 

Now,  I  believe,  that  was  Mr.  McKinley's  idea. 
Those  were  his  words,  and  they  are  not  capable  of 
any  misconstruction.  Everybody  who  has  studied 
Mr.  McKinley  at  all  knows  that  he  meant  what  he 

said. 

Events  have  proven  that  Mr.  McKinley  and  the 
American  Congress  went  into  Cuba  to  free  her  peo 
ple.  Nobody  disputes  but  that  we  went  into  Porto 
Rico  for  a  like  purpose.  Is  it  improbable  that  the 
man  who  led  us  into  those  islands,  and  then  ousted 
us  practically  out  of  them,  went  into  the  Philippines 
for  the  same  reason— to  free  those  people?  Why 
is  it  more  improbable  in  the  case  of  the  Philippines 
than  in  that  of  Cuba  or  Porto  Rico?  Indeed,  in  the 
face  of  our  relinquishment  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

and  the  carrying  out  to  the  letter  of  Mr.  McKin- 
ley's  promise  of  freedom  to  them,  the  improbability 
is  that  Mr.  McKinley  did  not  mean  what  he  said 
when,  in  the  case  of  the  Philippines,  he  declared 
that  we  were  there  to  take  to  their  people  "  the 
principles  of  liberty  (and)  of  freedom  .  .  . 
that  are  enjoyed  by  the  people  of  the  United 
States." 

If  I  am  correct,  and  I  have  been  at  great  care  and 
inquiry  to  prove  that  I  am,  that  we  went  into  the 
Philippines  with  the  fixed  determination  to  give 
to  those  people  their  absolute  freedom  the  first  mo 
ment  it  appeared  to  be  safe  to  so  do,  and  that  we 
have  not  changed  that  policy,  then  the  Anti-Imper 
ialists  have  no  case,  no  ground  upon  which  to  stand, 
now,  and  never  have  had  any.  A  distinguished 
Anti-Imperialist,  perhaps  I  ought  to  say  extinguished, 
for  he  has  been  very  quiet  for  a  long  time,  has  said 
that  "  God  never  made  the  people  who  couldn't 
govern  themselves,"  and,  therefore,  we  should  at 
once  evacuate  Manila  and  sail  away.  If  a  foreign 
power  did  not  intervene  to  protect  its  own  citizens, 
the  Filipino  could  undoubtedly  govern  himself,  for 
the  remark  just  quoted  is,  I  believe,  entirely  cor 
rect,  although  the  application  to  which  it  is  put  does 
140 


FORWARD 

suggest  that  the  mind  that  made  it  is  like  "  a  river 
one  thousand  miles  long  and  six  inches  deep."  But 
what  sort  of  a  self-government  would  it  be?  That 
is  the  point  in  which  the  civilized  people  of  the 
earth  are  interested.  Cannibals  govern  themselves. 
The  half-ape  creatures  of  the  Australian  bush 
govern  themselves.  The  Eskimo  governs  him 
self  and  so  do  the  wild  tribes  of  Darkest  Africa. 
But  what  sort  of  a  government  is  it  ?  Again,  I  say, 
that  is  the  question — not  only  self-government,  but 
an  American  kind  of  self -government,  is  what  we  de 
mand  of  the  Filipino  before  he  can  take  entire 
charge  of  his  own  affairs.  When  he  can  demon 
strate  that  he  can  guide  a  United  States  of  the 
Philippines,  this  great  nation  of  Franklin,  of  Wash 
ington,  of  Lincoln,  of  McKinley  and,  yes,  of  Roose 
velt,  the  new  American,  will  rise  in  the  might  of  its 
glorious  memories  and  deeds  and  turn  the  Philip 
pine  Islands,  free  and  independent,  over  to  their 
native  inhabitants. 

The  guide  for  our  course,  thus  far,  is  the  language 
of  that  great  man  who  has  since  paid  the  penalty  of 
death  for  his  greatness,  his  kindness,  his  love  to 
please  others,  and  whom  we  may  call  the  Father  of 
the  Philippines,  William  McKinley: 
141 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

"  We  shall  continue,  as  we  have  begun,  to  open  the 
schools  and  the  churches,  to  set  the  courts  in  opera 
tion,  to  foster  industry  and  trade  and  agriculture, 
and  in  every  way  in  our  power  to  make  these  peo 
ple  whom  Providence  has  brought  within  our  juris 
diction  feel  that  it  is  their  liberty  and  not  our  power, 
their  welfare  and  not  our  gain,  we  are  seeking  to 
enhance.  Our  flag  has  never  waved  over  any  com 
munity  but  in  blessing.  I  believe  the  Filipinos  will 
soon  recognize  the  fact  that  it  has  not  lost  its  gift 
of  benediction  in  its  world-wide  journey  to  their 
shores." 

The  1902  Report  of  the  United  States  Philippine 
Commission,  the  advance  sheets  of  which  have  been 
placed  at  my  disposition,  shows  that  we  have  over 
looo  American  men  and  women  over  there  teaching 
school  (p.  867) — that  200,000  Filipino  children  are 
already  attending  the  primary  schools  (p.  871),  that 
some  300  native  young  men  and  women  are  attend 
ing  a  normal  school  at  Manila  for  the  instruction  of 
teachers  (p.  873),  and  that  night  schools  are  being 
introduced  all  over  the  islands,  which  are  attended 
by  everybody,  young  and  old,  the  highest  and  the 
lowest — "  including  the  municipal  officers  and  some 
times  the  governors  of  provinces"  (Ibid.,  p.  887). 

This  report  shows  that  the  courts  we  have  set  up 
over  there,  members  of  whose  judges  are  largely 
Filipinos,  "  are  teaching  the  people  a  needed  lesson 
142 


FORWARD 

of  subordination  to  law  and  that  their  rights  of  per 
son  and  property  can  safely  be  reposed  in  the  courts 
and  will  be  vindicated  arM  protected  therein  without 
resorting  to  violence ;  and  this  is  a  new  condition  in 
the  Philippine  Islands  "  (Ibid.,  p.  692). 

The  people  are  seeing  for  the  first  time  what  law 
and  order  in  a  free  republic  means.  "  Civil  govern 
ment  was  completely  established  in  the  Filipino 
provinces  throughout  the  archipelago  in  July  of  this 
year,  and  since  that  time  an  American  soldier  has 
not  been  called  upon  once  to  discharge  his  weapon  " 
(Ibid.,  p.  18). 

We  are  building  hundreds  of  miles  of  good  roads, 
of  sewers,  of  watermains.  In  1901  there  were 
twenty-four  post-offices  in  all  the  Philippine  Islands  ; 
now  there  are  160  (p.  35).  We  are  teaching  sani 
tation  and  enforcing  its  laws.  We  are  introducing 
modern  machinery.  In  a  word,  we  are  revolutioniz 
ing  that  country.  It  is  being  filled  with  the  bustle  of 
America,  and  the  results  above  indicated  show  that 
we  are  being  met  more  than  half-way.  A  thousand 
Yankee  schoolmasters  and  schoolmarms  enthusias 
tically  at  work  in  that  land  and  among  that  people 
will  inevitably  revolutionize  the  Filipino. 

Now,  there  is  the  work.     What  shall  we  do  with 


THE  BLOW  FROM  BEHIND 

it?  Shall  we  drop  it?  Now  that  Mr.  McKinley  is 
dead,  shall  we  adopt  the  "  scuttle  policy  "  that  we 
would  never  have  adopted  while  he  was  President? 
We  shall  make  mistakes  in  performing  our  duty  as 
Mr.  McKinley  saw  it.  We  have  made  some  already. 
That  we  shall  make  more  is  certain.  No  work  of 
any  magnitude  can  be  done  without  mistakes.  There 
will  be  recurrences  of  the  insurrection.  Some  of 
our  people  will  be  murdered  out  there  before  our 
work  is  done ;  and  if  we  go  along,  sometimes  stum 
bling,  to  be  sure,  but  always  making  progress,  the 
Antis  and  the  opposition  that  always  kicks  up 
against  anybody  that  is  really  doing  anything,  will 
bark  and  snarl  at  us  at  every  misstep.  We  shall 
have  to  have  our  dark,  worrying,  doubtful  days. 
We  shall  keep  bumping  our  heads.  Shall  we  go  on  ? 
What  is  the  answer  of  the  American  people  ? 

There  is  one  reason  why  we  cannot  leave  the  Phil 
ippines  till  we  have  set  up  a  sound  republic  there: 
and  it  is  conclusive  to  me.  That  is  because  Ameri 
can  soldiers  have  laid  down  their  lives  out  there  in 
the  work,  and  the  American  people  should  never, 
for  a  moment,  question  about  the  advisability  or  the 
necessity  of  completing  a  good  work  which  was 
baptized  with  the  blood  of  an  American  volunteer! 
144 


FORWARD 

The  nation  owes  an  obligation  to  the  mothers  of  those 
who  die  at  its  behest  to  see  to  it  that  they  do  not 
die  in  vain. 

COLONEL  GUY   HOWARD^   DEATH.      HIS   HEROIC  LAST 
WORDS 

Nearly  four  years  ago,  General  Lawton  was  just 
starting  his  last  great  expedition  over  in  the  Philip 
pines.  His  supplies  had  to  be  taken  in  to  him  by  a 
river  that  ran  through  a  hostile  country,  and,  as  his 
success  or  failure  depended  very  largely  upon  the 
haste  with  which  he  could  be  furnished  with  his  ra 
tions,  the  detail  to  rush  these  supplies  in  to  him  was 
of  the  greatest  importance.  Colonel  Guy  Howard, 
the  eldest  son  of  Maj.  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard,  one  of 
the  great  commanders  of  the  Rebellion,  was  placed 
in  charge  of  the  work.  Regardless  of  the  almost 
certain  consequences  and  of  the  warnings  of  his 
brother  officers,  Colonel  Howard  determined  to  push 
up  to  General  Lawton  in  broad  daylight,  as  he  could 
thus  save  General  Lawton  ten  or  twelve  precious 
hours  if  he  could  but  break  his  way  through ;  and, 
with  a  handful  of  companions,  he  was  soon  on  his 
way,  steaming  along  in  a  small  launch  that  dragged 


THE  BLOW  FROM   BEHIND 

far  behind  it  in  its  wake  the  line  of  barges  that 
carried  the  precious  supplies. 

All  went  well  for  a  time,  but  as  the  stream  grew 
narrower  and  ran  along  through  banks  hidden  with 
deep,  overhanging,  tropical  underbrush,  there  was 
suddenly  a  cruel,  blinding,  deadly  volley  fired  into 
their  very  faces  from  the  bank.  Colonel  Howard, 
who  had  been  seated  in  the  stern,  fell  forward  on  his 
face  and  one  or  two  of  his  men  dropped, — killed  on 
the  spot.  But  Colonel  Howard  struggled  to  his  feet 
and  then,  standing  there  drawn  up  to  his  full  height 
with  his  hand  pressed  convulsively  to  his  breast  in  a 
vain  endeavor  to  stop  the  life  blood  from  spurting 
from  a  jagged  hole  in  his  lungs,  he  shouted  with  all 
his  remaining  strength,  "  Whatever  happens  to  me, 
keep  the  launch  going !  Keep  the  launch  going !  " 
— and  fell  over — dead — his  last  thought  of  his 
unfinished  duty. 

But  from  up  there  beyond  the  stars  where  his 
heroic  soul  had  already  gone,  Guy  Howard  saw  his 
work  done,  for  they  kept  the  launch  going  and  be 
fore  the  sun  had  set  they  brought  her  safely  to  her 
little  haven  around  the  hill,  under  the  Stars  and 
Stripes ! 

Our  history  records  no  grander  death.  His  last 
146 


FORWARD 

thought  was  not  of  his  wife,  his  little  ones,  his 
father,  his  mother,  his  sisters,  or  his  brothers — but 
only  of  his  duty.  His  dying  words  and  his  name 
should  be  emblazoned  in  letters  of  imperishable  gold 
high  up  on  the  list  of  our  most  honored  dead. 

And  this  launch  of  State  that  carries  the  great 
Philippine  people  that  America  has  just  started  out 
to  plow  seas  unknown  to  her  precious  freight, 
but  seas  whose  bays  and  currents  and  eddies  and 
rocks,  and  shoals,  and  safe  harbors,  too,  are  per 
fectly  familiar  to  our  pilot  at  the  wheel — as  she  sails 
out  on  her  search  for  American  freedom,  American 
prosperity,  American  ways,  a  Christian  religion, 
the  little  red  schoolhouse,  and  the  American  home ; 
I  believe  the  orders  of  the  American  people  to  her 
representatives  who  direct  that  voyage  will  be 
Guy  Howard's  immortal  words,  "  Keep  that  launch 
going !  Keep  that  launch  going !  " 


FINIS 


147 


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